IOWA: THE FIRST 
FREE STATE IN THE 
LOUISIANA PURCHASE 

* WILLIAM SALTER 



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I OWA 

THE FIRST FREE STATE IN THE 
LOUISIANA PURCHASE 




Lieutenant Zebulon Pike 



IOWA 



THE FIRSX.FREE .STATE IN 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 

From its Discovery to the Admission 

of the 

State into the Union 

1673-1846 

BY 

WILLIAM SALTER 

Illustrated with Portraits and Plans 




CHICAGO 
A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1905 



IUBHARYor CON. 
two C0p»«> rtei*t»w« 

COPY 8. 



ItUS 



Not 



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Copyright 

A. C. McClurg & Co. 

1905 

Published May 20, 1905 



THE UNIVERSITY PRIS9 
CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. 



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INTRODUCTORY 

A RESIDENT of Iowa for sixty-one years, 
and an immediate observer of its growth 
and progress from a census of 75,152 in 1844 to 
2,231,853 in 1900, I have cultivated a study of 
its history with some assiduity, and pubHshed 
a number of articles upon the subject in the 
'' Annals of Iowa " and in the *' Iowa Historical 
Record." The present volume is the outcome 
of these studies. It is not a history of Iowa 
after the admission of the State into the Union, 
but a record of the incidents in American his- 
tory from 1673 to 1846, that made it **the first 
Free State in the Louisiana Purchase." I am 
happy to acknowledge my indebtedness for aid 
in my studies to my deceased friends, Lyman 
C. Draper and Theodore S. Parvin, and to 
James D. Butler, LL.D., of Madison, Wisconsin, 
and Charles Aldrich, Curator of the Historical 
Department of Iowa. 

W. S. 
Burlington, Iowa, 

November 17, 1904. 



CONTENTS 

Page 

I. Discovery. 1673 n 

II. The Aborigines 22 

III. Under France. 1 682-1 770 29 

IV. Under Spain. 1 770-1 804 37 

V. In the Louisiana Purchase. 1803-1804 . . 50 

VI. In the District of Louisiana under the Gov- 
ernment of Indiana Territory. 1804-1805 64 

VII. In the Territory of Louisiana. 1805-1812 . ']^ 

VIII. In the Territory of Missouri. 1812-1821 . 88 

IX. In Unorganized Territory of the United 

States. 1 821-1834 124 

X. In the Territory of Michigan. 1834-1836 . 175 

XI. In the Territory of Wisconsin. 1 836-1 838 . 200 

XII. The Territory of Iowa. 1 838-1846 ... 232 

XIII. The Organization of the State and Admis- 
sion into the Union. 1846 272 

Appendix : 

1. The Name " Iowa " 277 

2. Notes on Some of the Illustrations .... 279 

Index 283 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Zebulon M. Pike • Frontispiece 

Marquette's Map 20 

Jonathan Carver 34 

Dubuque's Claim 42 

Thomas Jefferson 5^ 

The Floyd Monument 62 

Map from the Notes of Lieutenant Pike .... 80 

Meriwether Lewis 92 

William Clark 100 

Black Hawk •.no 

Rufus King 120 

Mahaska 128 

Keokuk U© 

Map of "The Black Hawk Purchase" I54 

First School House in Iowa « • 170 

Albert M. Lea 182 

Commission of Henry Dodge, first Governor of 

Wisconsin Territory 200 

Henry Dodge 206 



lo Illustrations 

Page 

First Capitol of Wisconsin Territory 212 

John C. Calhoun 224 

Commission of Robert Lucas, first Governor of 

Iowa Territory 236 

James W. Grimes 242 

Augustus C. Dodge 250 

John Chambers, second Governor of Iowa Territory 260 



IOWA 

THE FIRST FREE STATE IN THE 
LOUISIANA PURCHASE 



DISCOVERY 



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entered the Mississippi with a joy 

cannot express," said Marquette, 

speaking of the moment when he and Joliet 

glided in birch canoes from the Wisconsin 

River into the Father of Waters. It was on the 

seventeenth day of June, 1673. Marquette was 

a missionary from France, of the Society of 

Jesus ; Joliet, a Canadian trader. They were 

the first white men to behold the shores of 

Iowa. Emerging from between the low lands 

at the mouth of the Wisconsin, the high bluffs 

on the opposite shore attracted their gaze. 

II 



1 2 Iowa : the First Free State 

Among those bluffs now stands aloft the city 
of McGregor. 

One hundred and thirty-two years previously 
De Soto had been upon the lower Mississippi, 
nine hundred miles down the river, and met 
his tragic fate. On Spanish maps '' Nova His- 
pania " had been inscribed over the whole vague 
outline of North America. But in the lapse of 
more than a century De Soto's adventures 
passed out of notice. No one followed them 
up. Spain was engrossed with the conquest 
of Mexico and Peru. Glutted with silver and 
gold from those lands, and enfeebled by luxury, 
her rulers lost that ambition for a larger knowl- 
edge of the globe which gave immortal honor 
to Queen Isabella. The spirit of adventure 
passed to France. 

Marquette led in the new discovery. He 
was the forerunner in bringing the valley of the 
Mississippi to hght. Sailing down the river, 
he noted the fishes, the birds, the buffalo, and 
other animals, but saw no trace of a human 
being for eight days. On the twenty-fifth of 
June, having gone about two hundred and 



in the Louisiana Purchase 1 3 

seventy miles, human footprints were seen upon 
the right bank of the river, and a beaten path 
leading to a beautiful prairie. Marquette and 
Joliet went ashore and followed the path some 
five or six miles to a village of Illinois Indians 
on the banks of the Des Moines. One of our 
chief poets has put Marquette's narrative of 
their reception into the closing scene of the 
** Song of Hiawatha " : 

From the farthest realms of morning 
Came the Black-Robe chief, the Prophet, 
He the Priest of Prayer, the Pale-face, 
With his guides and his companions. 

And the noble Hiawatha, 
With his hands aloft extended. 
Held aloft in sign of welcome, 

Cried aloud and spake in this wise : 
** Beautiful is the sun, O strangers. 
When you come so far to see us ! 
All our town in peace awaits you, 
All our doors stand open for you ; 
You shall enter all our wigwams. 
For the heart's right hand we give you. 
Never bloomed the earth so gayly, 



14 Iowa: the First Free State 

Never shone the sun so brightly, 
As to-day they shine and blossom 
When you come so far to see us ! '* 



And the Black-Robe chief made answer, 
Stammered in his speech a little. 
Speaking words yet unfamiliar : 
" Peace be with you, Hiawatha, 
Peace be with you and your people, 
Peace of prayer, and peace of pardon. 
Peace of Christ, and joy of Mary ! " 

Then the generous Hiawatha 
Led the strangers to his wigwam. 
Seated them on skins of bison, 
Seated them on skins of ermine. 
And the careful old Nokomis 
Brought them food in bowls of basswood. 
Water brought in birchen dippers. 
And the calumet, the peace-pipe. 
Filled and lighted for their smoking. 
All the old men of the village. 
All the warriors of the nation, 

Came to bid the strangers welcome ; 
"It is well," they said, " O brothers. 
That you come so far to see us ! " 



in the Louisiana Purchase 15 

On the thirtieth of June the explorers pro- 
ceeded down the Mississippi. They observed 
the Missouri mingHng its tumultuous flood with 
the great waters, and they went as far as the 
mouth of the Arkansas, when they turned 
about, lest they fall into the hands of Span- 
iards from Florida, Spain being then at war 
with France. On their return, they passed 
up the Illinois River, and crossed over to Lake 
Michigan. 

As reports of their discovery reached Quebec 
and France, other explorers soon followed. In 
1680, Hennepin, a Franciscan missionary, came 
down the Illinois River, and ascended the Mis- 
sissippi to the Falls of St. Anthony. As he 
passed along the whole eastern border of Iowa, 
Jie was the first white man to see that part of it 
which lies above McGregor. He had the art 
to ingratiate himself among the Sioux Indians. 
The same summer, Du Luth, whose name is 
preserved in the city at the head of Lake 
Superior, threaded his way through the wil- 
derness and swamps between that Lake and the 
Mississippi into the Sioux country, where he 



1 6 Iowa: the First Free State 

fell in with Hennepin. In the fall they came 
down the Mississippi together to the Wisconsin, 
and went up that river, and over to Green Bay 
and Mackinaw, retracing the route by which 
Marquette and Joliet came to the Mississippi 
seven years before. 

Two years later (1682), La Salle unfurled 
the banner of France on the ninth of April at 
the mouth of the Mississippi, and took formal 
possession of the country watered by it and 
its affluents, in the name of Louis XIV. In 
this act he named the country Louisiana, as 
Hennepin also called it in his " Description 
of Louisiana," published at Paris in 1683. 

Prominent among other explorers was 
Nicolas Perrot. Born in France in 1644, he 
came to Canada when eleven years old, and 
at the age of twenty-one engaged in trade 
among the Indians. A man of native powers, 
of fine address, fond of adventure, he went 
among different tribes, and made himself 
famihar with their languages and customs. 
Possessed of religious fervor, he affihated 
with the Jesuit fathers, and supported their 



in the Louisiana Purchase 17 

missions. From his acquaintance with the 
tribes of the Upper Lakes, Talon, the In- 
tendant of New France, had employed him 
to assemble the chiefs of those tribes at the 
Falls of St. Mary on the fourteenth of June, 
1 67 1, when the French standards were set up 
with pomp, and formal possession of the 
country was taken. Next to the Jesuit fathers 
who were present, Perrot affixed his name to 
the proch-verbal as " His Majesty's Interpreter 
in these parts." The name of Joliet follows. 
It was Perrot's report to the Intendant of 
what the Indians had told him of a great river 
running south, that led Talon to despatch 
Joliet with Marquette to discover it. 

Afterwards, Perrot was the first trader with 
the Indians upon the Mississippi ; Marquette 
and JoHet after their discovery were never 
again upon its waters. Perrot made several 
establishments; one, among the Sioux near 
Lake Pepin; another, near the mouth of the 
Wisconsin, probably in what is now Clayton 
County, Iowa. The latter had his Christian 
name. It was Fort St. Nicolas. These estab- 



1 8 Iowa: the First Free State 

lishments, called " forts," were depots for goods 
brought into the country and for furs bought 
of the Indians in exchange for knives, guns, 
blankets, and trinkets. The traders were 
soldiers, subject to military orders. While thus 
engaged, Perrot was commissioned by the 
Governor of New France, Denonville, to take 
formal possession of the upper Mississippi, 
" in order to make incontestable His Majesty's 
right to the country discovered by his subjects." 
This was done on the eighth of May, 1689, at 
Post St. Anthony, which stood upon a com- 
manding site, Mont Trempealeau, a few miles 
above the city of La Crosse, Wisconsin. De 
Bois Guillot, commandant at Fort St. Nicolas, 
Joseph Jean Marest, of the Society of Jesus, 
Le Sueur, a hardy adventurer and mine pros- 
pector in the Sioux country, and other wit- 
nesses were present, and with Perrot signed 
the proch-verbal. 

The following year, 1690, some Miami Indi- 
ans, then Hving upon the Mississippi, brought a 
specimen of lead ore from a " ruisseau " (prob- 
ably Catfish Creek, Dubuque), to Perrot, and 



in the Louisiana Purchase 19 

requested him to establish a trading-post there, 
which he did, and the place became known as 
"Perrot's Mines." 

At the period of these discoveries all western 
Europe was in arms. France was at the head 
of the nations, and Louis XIV. was head of 
France, and a terror to other lands. While dis- 
covering the Mississippi on one continent, he 
was carrying dismay and ruin into neighboring 
countries on another, overrunning the Palatinate, 
conquering Alsace, Lorraine, and Luxembourg, 
threatening England and Holland. Only the 
resistance, the patience, and the daring of 
William, Prince of Orange, afterward William 
III. of England, turned the tide of battle against 
him. At the same period the Huguenots, 
denied liberty of worship in France, begged 
the privilege of planting themselves upon the 
Mississippi. But Louis XIV. replied that he 
had not banished Protestants from France to 
make a republic of them in America. 

At the time of Marquette's discovery the 
English settlements on the Atlantic coast were 
scattered and feeble. They extended but short 



20 Iowa: the First Free State 

distances into the interior, and were frequently 
in terror of the Indians. King Philip was still 
at peace with the Plymouth Colony, but two 
years later, 1675, he kindled a general Indian 
war, which excited gloomy apprehensions in 
every settlement in New England. In New 
York, the Dutch and English were still at strife 
for the province. William Penn had not yet 
crossed the Atlantic ; nine years later he founded 
Philadelphia. The settlement in Virginia was 
sixty-six years old, but numbered only forty 
thousand souls. The Carolinas had a popula- 
tion of four thousand ; the city of Charleston 
was founded seven years later. A Spanish 
settlement had existed for a century at St. 
Augustine, but was still feeble, and chiefly mem- 
orable for intolerance, cruelty, and crime. 

Thus small and obscure were the beginnings 
of our country when the bluffs and prairies of 
Iowa first glimmered into view. Though a 
part of the earhest discovered portion of the 
Mississippi valley, and rich and attractive as 
any, the settlement of Iowa was long delayed. 
For a century and a half it remained in the 



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Marquette's Map of the Discovery of Iowa 



in the Louisiana Purchase 21 

seclusion of nature, the home and hunting- 
ground of wandering and warring tribes, visited 
only by traders to get the furs of the region, its 
fortune in history held in abeyance by persons 
living and events occurring far away. 



22 Iowa: the First Free State 



II 

THE ABORIGINES 

THE discoverers of Iowa found roving 
bands of Illinois and Miami Indians 
upon its borders, who soon returned east of 
the Mississippi, where their names remain in 
rivers of other States. The lowas had the 
same roving habits. They were of Sioux 
stock, as their language and traditions indi- 
cate. They were sometimes called " Prairie 
Sioux." They roamed from Lake Michigan 
to the Missouri River, and at the same time 
occupied villages in Iowa, and upon rivers that 
bear their name, longer and more continuously 
than any other tribe. Hence Iowa became 
the name of the State, as the names of the 
Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Minnesota 
Rivers fell to the States through which those 
rivers flow. Bands of lowas were found at one 
period and another upon the Milwaukee River, 
the Mississippi, the St. Peter's, the Upper and 



in the Louisiana Purchase 23 

Lower Iowa, Rock River, the Des Moines, 
the Missouri, the Grand, the Chariton, and the 
Little Sioux. On an early map (171 8) the 
Little Sioux is called '' River of the lowas." 

Rivers were the Indian highways of transpor- 
tation in canoes of birch bark. These were of 
graceful construction, built without hammer or 
nail, but strong, of large carrying capacity, yet 
so light as to be easily carried over a portage 
from one river to another. 

The aborigines were in a low state of barba- 
rism. They had no arts or trades. They knew 
nothing of writing, or of numbers beyond the 
ten fingers. Their tools or implements were 
shells, fish-bones, the bones of wild animals, 
clubs and spears of wood. They knew not the 
use of stone in building, or of lime and sand, or 
how to construct a chimney. Their tents were 
put up with poles and sticks, covered with skins, 
or with mats made of bark and rushes. Their 
clothing was of skins. At feasts and on show 
occasions they smeared the face and body, put 
feathers on their heads, and strung bear claws 
about the neck. They had no iron, wax, or 



24 Iowa: the First Free State 

oil. They made fire by rubbing sticks. They 
had no horses, cows, sheep, hogs, chickens ; only 
dogs. They knew not the use of milk. Their 
subsistence was from fishing and hunting, in 
which they were expert, and from little corn- 
fields and melon-patches, cultivated by the 
squaws. The men hated labor. Nothing aroused 
them to action but war and the chase. To 
hunt, fish, and pursue and scalp an enemy, was 
their life. On marches the squaws carried the 
pack-burdens; on hunting expeditions they 
dressed the skins, jerked the buffalo meat, and 
put up the lodges at night. 

The savages had hardly a conception of 
property, or it was limited to a few things, that 
were held in common rather than as personal 
belongings. They had no idea of money or 
sense of value. In their wandering Hfe they 
knew nothing of land-ownership. The earth is 
our common mother, they said, and land and 
water are free as air and light. When we speak 
of the Indians selling their land, or of our peo- 
ple buying their land, we use the language of 
our civilization, not that of the savages. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 25 

Marquette's friendly reception by the Illinois 
drew his heart to that tribe, and it was in his 
mind to establish a mission among them, but 
his life was cut short in less than two years, and 
the work fell to others. Father Gabriel Marest, 
a brother of Joseph Jean Marest, previously 
mentioned, took up the work and prosecuted it 
with heroic devotion. Writing from Kaskaskia 
thirty-seven years after Marquette's death, he 
said : 

" The Illinois are less barbarous than other savages. 
In a great extent of country only three or four villages 
are found. Our life is passed in threading dense 
forests, crossing lakes and rivers, that we may over- 
take some poor savage who is fleeing from us, whom 
we know not how to tame. Slaves to brutal passions, 
they are indolent, deceitful, and naturally thievish, 
so as to boast of their skill in thieving. Nothing is 
more difficult than the conversion of these savages ; 
it is a miracle of the Lord's mercy. We must first 
make men of them, and afterward work to make 
them Christians." * 

The Illinois were the only tribe on the upper 
Mississippi among whom the Jesuits established 
*" Jesuit Relations" (Thwaites), Ixvi., 218. 



26 Iowa: the First Free State 

missions. The lowas, the Sioux, and the Mis- 
souris, Pawnees, Otoes, Omahas, of what is now 
western Iowa, and the Osages of the country 
south, remained in original savagery. 

The Sacs and Foxes came later into Iowa. 
A century elapsed before they gained a foot- 
hold upon the upper Mississippi. The early 
explorers of Canada found them about Lake 
Huron and Saginaw Bay, where they were at 
war with other tribes. Soon they were at war 
with the French. When worsted in those wars, 
and after the repulse of the Foxes at the siege 
of Detroit in 1712, they drifted to Lake Michi- 
gan and Green Bay. Here they carried on 
war with the Chippewas and other tribes, and 
again fought the French, robbed the French 
traders, and burned their trading-houses. Again 
worsted, they moved over to the Wisconsin 
River. Here they went on the war-path against 
the Illinois Indians. A captain in the French 
service at Fort Chartres reports the descent 
of a body of Foxes, Sacs, and Sioux from the 
Wisconsin River in more than a hundred canoes 
to avenge upon the Illinois Indians the killing 
of a Fox hunting-party : 



in the Louisiana Purchase 27 

"The Foxes had fixed upon Corpus Christi day 
for fighting the lUinois, knowing they would come to 
see the ceremonies performed by the French on that 
day. Ten or twelve of the Foxes fell upon the 
Indian village, which was only a league from the 
Fort, killed all they met, and fled. The Illinois 
pursued them, but an army of Foxes was lying in the 
tall grass, and they killed twenty-eight Illinois, and 
then fell upon the village, set fire to it, killed men, 
women, and children, and led away the rest as 
captives. The Foxes lost but four men. I was a 
spectator of the slaughter, June 6, 1752, from a hill 
which overlooks the village, and had the opportunity 
of saving the life of a girl of fifteen years of age, who 
came to bring me strawberries. The savages did not 
venture to shoot at her for fear of hitting me." * 

The famous Connecticut traveller, Jonathan 
Carver, found a large Sac village on the Wis- 
consin River in 1766. Thence they drifted to 
the Mississippi. The region was open before 
them, former occupants were gone, and they 
spread themselves up and down the river, and 
up the Missouri, carrying their war spirit in 
every direction, fighting the remnant of the 

* Bossu. " Travels in Louisiana," i,, 131. 



28 Iowa: the First Free State 

Illinois, fighting the lowas, fighting the Osages 
and the Missouris, fighting the Sioux, fighting 
Spain, fighting the United States. The idea 
of their owning Iowa by hereditary right, or by 
long occupation, is fabulous. From the begin- 
ning they resisted all efforts for their civilization. 
They spurned the missionary, with cross and 
rosary, or with Bible and school-book, and the 
farmer, sent by the United States to teach 
them the plough and the spade. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 29 



III 

UNDER FRANCE 
I 682-1 770 

WHILE Marquette's discovery and the 
acts of La Salle and Perrot gave to 
France the territory now called Iowa, it re- 
mained during the whole French domination a 
savage wilderness. France was then in search 
of silver and gold mines, such as Spain had 
found in Mexico and Peru. Le Sueur, who was 
with Perrot on the upper Mississippi in 1689, 
was foremost in the search. After the formal 
possession of the country was taken, he went 
to France, to obtain exclusive mining privi- 
leges and men to work the mines. But en- 
countering many mishaps in the war then 
raging between England and France, it was not 
until ten years afterward that he arrived at 
New Orleans with a party of French miners. 
In the spring of 1700 they started up the Missis- 



3© Iowa: the First Free State 

sippi, and passed along the border of Iowa in the 
summer. They encountered Canadian voyageurs 
and Sioux and Iowa Indians upon the river. 
On the thirteenth of August they were at 
Perrot's Mines, and on the seventh of Septem- 
ber they passed the present boundary line be- 
tween Iowa and Minnesota. Later in the season 
they ascended the St. Peter's to the Blue Earth 
River, where Le Sueur made an *' establish- 
ment." Here again he met lowas, with Indians 
of other tribes. 

The Indian trade of the upper Mississippi 
centred at the mouth of the Wisconsin River, 
where trading posts were established, some of 
them on the west bank of the Mississippi. Thence 
traders and missionaries went up into the Sioux 
country, or down the Mississippi, or followed a 
long path to the Missouri River, overland, which 
was marked on English maps as the *' French 
route to the West." The Indians on the Mis- 
souri River furnished a valuable trade, in 
which the French at Kaskaskia also engaged. 
The idea was then cherished, as expressed 
by Charlevoix in 1722, of ascending to the 



in the Louisiana Purchase 31 

sources of that river and finding a passage to 
the Pacific Ocean ; an idea realized eighty-three 
years afterwards by Lewis and Clark. 

The Des Moines River was also traversed its 
whole length by Canadian voyageurs. They 
observed " great plenty of pit coal " upon its 
banks, and that the river " issues from the midst 
of an immense meadow which swarms with 
buffaloes and other wild beasts," and they 
traced the connection between the lakes that 
are its source and other lakes in which the 
Blue Earth River has its origin. 

A few names, as that of the Des Moines 
River, and of T^te des Morts in Dubuque 
County, are the only marks of French domi- 
nation remaining upon the soil of Iowa. No 
grant of land was made to any one. During 
much of the time, France, England, and Spain 
were at war with each other, and jealous as 
to their respective possessions in America. In 
1720, Spain being at war with France, an ex- 
pedition was fitted out from Santa Fe to seize 
Louisiana, but the party on reaching the Mis- 
souri River fell into the hands of savages, and 



32 Iowa: the First Free State 

all but one, the priest who escaped, were massa- 
cred. Two years later, the French built Fort 
Orleans on the Missouri River, near the mouth 
of the Osage, to guard against another invasion. 
Later, this fort was attacked by the savages, and 
all the French were massacred.* Bossu, writing 
from Kaskaskia, May 15, 1753, says; 

" Spain saw with great displeasure our settlements 
on the Mississippi. The English, too, spared no 
intrigues to ruin this growing colony, as they still do 
those on the Ohio, which they say belongs to them ; 
they have likewise laid claim to the Mississippi." f 

Louis XIV. cherished a warm and ambitious 
regard for New France and Louisiana. He 
gave them his personal attention and support. 
No English sovereign had any such regard for 
the English colonies in America. They grew 
by their own energy and enterprise. As against 
Louis XIV. and James II., they supported the 
Revolution of 1688, which put William III. on 
the throne of England. The contest raged 

* Amos Stoddard. " Sketches of Louisiana," pp. 45-46. 
t Travels m Louisiana,!., 151. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 33 

fiercely in America, in what were known as the 
French and Indian wars, on the frontiers of the 
Hudson, the Connecticut, the Merrimac, and 
the headwaters of the Ohio. At an early stage 
in those wars the French abandoned their 
establishments on the Mississippi, and the 
traders returned to the St. Lawrence. So far 
as che Indians of this region took part, it was 
on the British side. 

Louisiana was dependent originally upon and 
subordinate to New France, with the seat of 
government at Quebec. Charlevoix in his 
History of New France (1744) treats them as 
one, though under separate governments. He 
says the country above the Illinois is " not 
Louisiana, but New France." The Ohio River 
and the mouth of the Arkansas were at different 
times spoken of as the line between them. On 
the west side of the Mississippi, above the 
mouth of the Ohio, the first settlement was at 
St. Genevieve in 1 745 ; the next at St. Louis 
in 1764 by the adventurous LaclMe, who or- 
ganized a company that obtained a monopoly 
of the fur trade of the whole region. " Many 

3 



34 Iowa: the First Free State 

ages must pass before we can penetrate into the 
northern parts of Louisiana," said a historian of 
that time.* 

Meanwhile, the French and Indian wars were 
closed on the Heights of Abraham with the 
fall of Quebec (1759). France was humiliated. 
She lost Canada, and she feared for Louisiana, 
lest an English fleet should seize the mouth 
of the Mississippi and capture New Orleans. 
In these straits, Louis XV., great-grandson of 
Louis XIV., a weak and corrupt man, by a 
secret treaty ceded New Orleans and the 
country west of the Mississippi to Charles III. 
of Spain, another great-grandson of Louis XIV., 
a man of stronger character, '' from the afifec- 
tion and friendship existing between these two 
royal persons." The cession was accepted, 
and acknowledged in the Treaty of Paris, 
January i, 1763. 

At New Orleans the people were exasperated 
at the treaty. They sent a deputation to the 
French king, begging him to retract his dona- 
tion to Spain. The venerable Bienville, the 

* Du Pratz. " History of Louisiana," London, 1763, ii., 159. 




Jonathan Carver 



in the Louisiana Purchase 35 

founder of the colony, then residing in Paris 
in his eighty-sixth year, expostulated with the 
prime minister, with tears and upon his knees, 
to retract; but to no purpose. The answer 
was: 

*' The colony cannot continue its precarious 
existence without an enormous expense, of 
which France is incapable. Is it not better that 
Louisiana should be given away to a friend than 
be wrested from us by a hereditary foe ? " 

At New Orleans the people refused subjection 
to Spanish authority. They ordered off the 
first governor sent by Spain, and were not 
brought into subjection until the arrival of a 
strong military force under another governor 
(1769). 

The first American who is known to have 
been in Iowa was Jonathan Carver, of Connecti- 
cut. He came down the Wisconsin River in 
October, 1766, and ascended the Mississippi. 
The traders of his party took up a residence 
for the winter at the mouth of Yellow River, in 
what is now Allamakee County, and he went 
up to St. Anthony's Falls. 



36 Iowa: the First Free State 

No representative of Spain came to upper 
Louisiana until August, 1768, when a captain 
arrived at St. Louis with twenty-five soldiers. 
By universal consent, however, the last French 
commandant, Saint-Ange de Bellerive, a ven- 
erable man of high character, continued in 
authority until a Spanish Lieutenant Governor 
arrived, Don Pedro Piernas, who received pos- 
session of the province on the tenth of May, 
1770. Thus what is now Iowa came under 
Spain. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 37 



T 



IV 

UNDER SPAIN 

I 770-1 804 

HE possession of Louisiana gratified the 
ambition of Spain for larger possessions 
in America. An act of friendship between two 
royal persons, it was also a compensation for 
the aid Spain had given to France in the 
recent war with England. That war was dis- 
astrous to both France and Spain ; but the 
acquisition of Louisiana did for Spain what De 
Soto in 1540, and the expedition from Sante F^ 
in 1720, had vainly attempted. It made her 
colonial possessions the largest in the world. 
They now stretched in an unbroken line on the 
west side of the continent from Cape Horn to 
the sources of the Missouri and the Mississippi. 
Slumbering in that vast area, undistinguishable 
in the wilderness, lay Iowa. Under Spain, it 
continued in the hands of wandering and war- 



38 Iowa: the First Free State 

ring savages, with few incidents for historical 
record, its future determined in the counsels of 
courts far away. 

As the Treaty of Paris (1763) secured to 
England free navigation >of the Mississippi, 
British traders soon appeared upon the upper 
Mississippi. They came into competition with 
the French Canadians who had been there 
earlier, and with Spanish traders who came 
later. They extended their trade up the Des 
Moines, and far up the Missouri, where the 
trade was the richest of all. By their enter- 
prise, and with better goods at lower prices, 
they ingratiated themselves with the Indians, 
and, as trade makes friends, won them to the 
British side, against both Spain and the United 
States. At the same time Laclede and Chou- 
teau carried on a prosperous trade from St. 
Louis. That city vied with Mackinaw for the 
Indian trade, and therein laid the foundation 
of its wealth. 

In 1779, Spain went to war with England. 
A Spanish force captured Natchez on the 
lower Mississippi. On the upper Mississippi, 



in the Louisiana Purchase 39 

the representatives of the two powers were 
feeble and scattered, but they shared in the 
war. In May, 1780, a British force from 
Mackinaw with a motley band of traders and 
Indians assaulted St. Louis. The next year a 
Spanish expedition from St. Louis marched 
across Illinois and captured a small English 
fort on St. Joseph River, near the present city 
of Niles, Michigan. This capture was made 
the ground of a Spanish claim to a vast tract 
of country east of the Mississippi. 

During the American Revolution Spain was 
friendly to it, and aided the United States 
with arms and ammunition. But when inde- 
pendence was won, Spain became jealous of 
the new nation, and endeavored to cut it off 
from the Mississippi. 

Though Spain excluded the British from the 
Indian trade west of the Mississippi, the British 
traders kept it up. It was to no purpose that 
Lieutenant Governor Cruzat at St. Louis sent 
word to the Sacs and Foxes, November 30, 
1781, that "the King of Spain, the master of 
the world, was their true father, and that the 



40 Iowa: the First Free State 

English were intruders." They judged both 
Spanish and British traders by the prices at 
which they sold their goods. The Spanish 
traders were shackled by heavy taxes to their 
government, and were sometimes victimized by 
the Indians, especially by the lowas, who stole 
their best furs and turned them over to British 
traders. At the same time the British traders 
took the risk of being overtaken by Spanish 
gunboats and stripped of all they had. In I786> 
Navarino, the Intendant at New Orleans, com- 
plained that " the British had all the trade with 
the nations on the Des Moines, where beaver 
and otter skins were in the greatest abundance." 
Later, the fur trade of Spanish Louisiana was 
farmed out to an English house in London. 

But few Spaniards came into Upper Louis- 
iana. The population remained French. A 
few Americans came under the offer of land 
from the government; as Daniel Boone, who 
settled on the Missouri River, and Israel 
Dodge, who settled near St. Genevieve. They 
also cherished the belief that the country 
would at some time fall into the possession of 



in the Louisiana Purchase 41 

the United States. Without that expectation 
Boone said that he would not have come. The 
only Spaniard who distinguished himself by- 
enterprise and adventure was Manuel Lisa, an 
active and indefatigable fur trader, who spent 
many winters in the wilderness, and was fore- 
most in extending trade among the Indians 
upon what is now the western border of Iowa, 
and among the Blackfoot and Crow Indians of 
the Big Horn Mountains. He became a patriotic 
American, and was employed in the service 
of the United States. He said, ** I have 
suffered enough under a different government, 
to know how to appreciate the one under which 
I now live." 

The Sacs and Foxes came into the Missis- 
sippi country about the time of the transfer of 
Upper Louisiana to Spain. The Foxes estab- 
lished themselves in five villages on the west 
side of the river, between the upper Iowa 
River and Rock Island. Their largest village 
was on Catfish Creek. Julien Dubuque, a 
French Canadian, an early settler at Prairie du 
Chien, visited this village to trade with the 



42 Iowa: the First Free State 

Indians. A man of parts, cunning, adroit, a 
charmer of rattlesnakes, of which the region 
was full, handling them with impunity, he in- 
gratiated himself with the Indians, and secured 
their unlimited confidence. He took a squaw 
wife. The discovery of a lead mine at the 
village made his fortune. He assembled the 
Fox chiefs of the region at Prairie du Chien, 
and procured a permit to work the mines, with 
a monopoly of the right, November 22, 1788. 
Ten Canadian laborers were employed in 
working the mines. Dubuque built them 
cabins, and they, too, took squaw wives. He 
built a smelting furnace, and a house for him- 
self. Large quantities of lead were produced. 
The establishment prospered. It was the 
first white settlement in Iowa. Dubuque 
drove off other traders who came there with 
goods. Pie shipped lead to St. Louis, and 
gained consideration and credit with Chouteau, 
the principal merchant of that city. As under 
Spain none but Spaniards could hold mines, he 
became a Spaniard, and named his mines 
"Spanish mines." In 1796 he petitioned 




Dubuque's Claim, 1788-1810 



in the Louisiana Purchase 43 

Carondelet, the Governor of Louisiana, to 
assure him the possession of his estabHshment, 
representing that he had bought the land 
lying between the Little Maquoketa and Tete 
des Morts rivers, of the Indians. The Gov- 
ernor indorsed the petition, " Granted as 
asked," November 10, 1796, with certain 
restrictions. Dubuque's description of the land 
as given him, and of its boundaries, was a 
misrepresentation. There was nothing of the 
kind in the Indian permit. 

In addition to mining, Dubuque carried on 
the fur trade with different tribes, outwitting 
other traders, if he could. A British trader's 
record of an adventure with him on the Des 
Moines River, in the winter of 1801-1802, shows 
how such things went on: 

"I ascended the river about fifty miles, to the 
Iowa tribe. A Frenchman named Julien [Dubuque] 
was my only competitor this year at this point. 
Those Indians hunted near the Missouri, about 
ninety miles across the country from where we were 
located. It would have been easy to have sent 
goods up the Missouri to the vicinity of their hunt- 



44 Iowa: the First Free State 

ing grounds, but to save expense we agreed that 
neither would send outfits there, but trust to our own 
exertions in the spring, when the Indians would 
bring their furs to our shops. I considered myself 
away from trickery, and, as time hung heavily, wore 
it away with hunting, making oars, paddles, and 
other whittlings, until Christmas. Then Julien and 
his interpreter had a quarrel, and his interpreter 
told me that Julien, with the intention of stealing all 
the credits I had made to the Indians, had sent 
goods up the Missouri last fall. This was a thunder- 
clap to me. An immediate explanation was de- 
manded from Julien. I was furious, and showered 
all the abuse I could on his cringing head. My 
mind was soon made up. I left my interpreter in 
charge of the Des Moines trading post, and with 
Julien's interpreter started the next day with seven 
loaded men, taking provisions for one day only, 
depending on game for supply. The little islands of 
wood, scattered over the boundless plains, were 
swarming with wild turkeys, so that we had plenty. 
At the end of six days we reached our destination, 
taking Julien's two engag/s by surprise. My party 
fixed up a temporary shop. Not long after, the 
Indians came in. I made a splendid season's trade, 
managed for the transportation of my packs of fur, 
leaving a man to help Julien's engages down with 



in the Louisiana Purchase 45 

their boat. Thus I completed my winter, and 
JuHen found his trickery more costly than he 
anticipated." * 

Under Spain, Dubuque remained in posses- 
sion of his establishment and in favor with the 
Fox Indians. Falling in debt to Chouteau at 
St. Louis for merchandise, he bargained away 
one-half of his land to him. An account cur- 
rent over both their signatures is preserved, in 
which Dubuque is credited with a ** contract of 
seventy-two thousand arpents of land bought " ; 
and two hundred dollars and four hundred 
dollars are " payable in deer skins at the cur- 
rent price." t 

Two other land grants in Iowa were made 
under Spain : one to Basil Girard, on the ground 
of his ** inhabitation and cultivation " of land, 
where the city of McGregor stands ; the other 
to Louis Tesson (Honord), of land on which 
Montrose, in Lee County, is situated. These 
two grants were confirmed by the United States ; 
that to Dubuque was not confirmed, the United 

* Thomas G. Anderson. Wisconsin Hist. Coll., ix., 151. 
t " Annals of Iowa." Third series, iii., 649. 



46 Iowa: the First Free State 

States Supreme Court deciding that a concession 
to work the mines did not carry a grant of land. 
The grant to Tesson was " of sufficient space to 
make it valuable to the commerce of peltries," 
and he was ** to watch the Indians, and keep 
them in the fidelity they owe to his Majesty." 
He erected buildings and a trading-house, and 
planted gardens and an orchard. He, too, fell 
in debt, and the whole property was seized 
under the Spanish law, and sold at public sale 
at the door of the parish church in St. Louis, at 
the conclusion of high mass, the people coming 
out in great number, after due notice given by 
the public crier of the town in a high and intelli- 
gible voice, on three successive Sundays, May 
I, 8, 15, 1803. On the first Sunday twenty-five 
dollars was bid ; on the second, thirty dollars ; 
on the third, the last adjudication, one hundred 
dollars ; and subsequently, one hundred and fifty 
dollars by Joseph Robidoux, Tesson's creditor, 
which was repeated until twelve o'clock at noon ; 
and the public retiring, the said Robidoux de- 
manded a deed of his bid. It was cried at one 
o'clock, at two o'clock, and at three o'clock, and, 



in the Louisiana Purchase 47 

no other persons presenting themselves, the 
said land and appurtenances were adjudged to 
him for the mentioned price of one hundred and 
fifty dollars, and having to receive this sum 
himself, he gave no security. 

A copy (translation) of the grant made by 
Lieutenant Governor Trudeau, a copy of the 
legal process, and a copy of the United States 
patent to the land, signed by President Van 
Buren, February 7, 1839, were exhibited at the 
fifteenth annual meeting of the State Historical 
Society of Iowa, June 23, 1873, at a commemo- 
ration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the 
discovery of Iowa. The patent is the first given 
by the United States to any land in Iowa. It 
was sustained by the United States Supreme 
Court in 1856, against those holding under a 
"half breed" claim. A similar patent was given 
to the assigns of Basil Girard in 1844. These 
are the only instances in which a land title in 
Iowa is derived from Spain ; in both cases the 
land fell to creditors of the original grantees. 

In the overturnings of Europe by Napoleon, 
Spain retroceded Louisiana to France, Octo- 



48 Iowa: the First Free State 

ber I, 1800, by a secret treaty, negotiated by 
Napoleon's brother, Lucien, then French am- 
bassador to Spain. When the secret came out, 
it excited grave apprehensions in the United 
States. Spain administered her government at 
New Orleans to the injury of American com- 
merce, and now it was feared, that if France 
possessed that city, things might be worse. Our 
relations with that country had been strained 
by her defiant attitude towards our government 
in the closing years of Washington's adminis- 
tration, and by her spoliation of our ships at sea. 
Diplomatic intercourse had been suspended, 
and only lately resumed. Robert R. Livingston 
was our minister to France, one of our ablest 
public men. President Jefferson was thoroughly 
informed of the situation, and watched the 
course of events with deep solicitude for the 
interests of our country. The treaty of retro- 
cession was not executed until the thirtieth of 
November, 1803, at New Orleans, when Spain 
delivered up that city and Louisiana to France. 
The transfer of Upper Louisiana took place 
on the ninth of March, 1804, at St. Louis. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 49 

That was the beginning of the decline and 
fall of the empire of Spain in America. After 
a few years, revolutions broke out in Mexico, 
which were soon followed in other provinces, 
until every colony that Spain had planted on 
the continent threw off the Spanish yoke. It 
was a sequence in the nineteenth century to the 
act of the Thirteen English colonies in the 
eighteenth century, in throwing off the British 
yoke. 



50 Iowa: the First Free State 



IN THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 
I 803- I 804 

THE purchase of Louisiana by the United 
States was complicated with the affairs of 
Spain and France and England. The sale was 
a necessity for Napoleon, in view of a war with 
England, upon which he was set. In that 
event, he saw that England would capture 
New Orleans and take possession of Louisiana. 
He therefore gave up the plans he had 
cherished, to hold that city and to plant a 
French colony in Louisiana, and proposed the 
sale of both city and province to the United 
States. The American plenipotentiaries, Robert 
R. Livingston and James Monroe, though with- 
out instructions from President Jefferson as to 
the country west of the Mississippi, accepted the 
offer and made the purchase. Livingston had 
conducted the negotiations before the arrival of 



in the Louisiana Purchase 51 

Monroe in Paris. The treaty of cession was 
signed April 30, 1803. 

The purchase was a necessity for the United 
States in order to meet the demands of 
American commerce for the possession of 
New Orleans, and in view of Napoleon's con- 
ditioning the sale of New Orleans upon the 
sale of the whole province. James Madison, 
Secretary of State, expressed his apprehension, 
July 24, 1 801, that in the event of the capture 
of Louisiana and Florida by England, " our 
country would be flanked south and west, as 
well as north, by the last of neighbors that 
would be desirable." At the time of the pur- 
chase, however, England was in friendly rela- 
tions with us, and the American minister at 
London was assured, ** that England would be 
satisfied if the United States obtained Louisiana, 
and that, when apprised of the cession, her 
provisional expedition to occupy New Orleans 
would be wholly out of view." * Under appre- 
hension that France would take possession of 
New Orleans, President Jefferson had written 

* Rufus King. Life and Correspondence, iv., 255, 573. 



52 Iowa: the First Free State 

Livingston, April i8, 1802; "From that mo- 
ment, we must marry ourselves to the British." 
He had not expected Napoleon to give in, 
until France and England were actually at war. 
Whether, however, Napoleon might not see the 
sale to be necessary beforehand, was a chance 
Jefferson thought it well to try. In these cir- 
cumstances he despatched Monroe to Paris, with 
large discretion to the plenipotentiaries. When 
Napoleon learned what preparations England 
was making for war, immediately he ordered 
the sale. " We availed ourselves of the situa- 
tion; the denouement has been happy," said 
the President. 

The triumphs of diplomacy are more honor- 
able than those of war. The peacemakers are 
of superior dignity to the war-makers. It is 
noteworthy that the author of the Declaration 
of Independence was the director of the Loui- 
siana Purchase, and that Livingston, the chief 
agent in making the treaty, was one of the 
committee with Jefferson to draw up the Decla- 
ration. Their fame is as statesmen, not as 
soldiers. Monroe has similar honor. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 53 

In the extent of the Purchase, Jefferson saw 
" promise of a widespread field for freedom and 
equal laws." He further said, '* I look to the 
duplication of area for a government so free 
and economical as ours, as a vast achievement 
to the mass of happenings which is to come." It 
was the boast of Napoleon that he strengthened 
the power of the United States against his 
mortal enemy. A century afterwards, the 
representative of the French Republic at the St. 
Louis Exposition recalled with pride and con- 
gratulation that the cession of Louisiana was the 
third contribution of France to the life and 
growth of our country, following the Alliance 
of 1778, without which England might have 
overpowered us, and the recognition of our 
place among the nations in 1783. 

Upon signing the treaty, Livingston rose and 
shook hands with Monroe, and with Marbois, 
the French minister, and said : " We have lived 
long, but this is the noblest work of our lives. 
This treaty will change vast solitudes into 
flourishing districts, and prepare ages of hap- 
piness for innumerable generations. The 



54 Iowa: the First Free State 

Mississippi and the Missouri will see them 
succeed one another, and multiply in the bosom 
of equality, under just laws, freed from the 
errors of superstition and the scourges of bad 
government." It gave especial gratification to 
Jefferson, as he wrote Livingston, that the nego- 
tiation was conducted "with a frankness and 
sincerity honorable to both nations, and com- 
fortable to a man of honest heart to review." 
He gave full credit to Livingston for his part in 
the transaction, and in writing to him called it, 
**your treaty." 

The treaty was ratified by the Senate on the 
twenty-first day of October, and ten days later 
Congress voted the money to carry it into 
effect. Prompt action was necessary, for Spain 
was still in possession, and in bad humor. 
Aggrieved by the perfidy of Napoleon, she 
protested against the sale to the United States, 
the terms of retrocession, to which he had 
agreed, forbidding the transfer of Louisiana to 
another power. In this, as in other cases. 
Napoleon played false. At the same time, the 
French were in such disturbed condition, and 



in the Louisiana Purchase 55 

so given to change, that apprehension was felt 
lest they should go back upon what had been 
done. Livingston and Monroe advised Jefferson 
that if it had to be done over again the treaty 
could not be obtained. The President, there- 
fore, advised Congress to act with as little 
debate as possible, particularly as to the ** con- 
stitutional difficulty," which he felt was great, but, 
if his friends thought differently, he said, 
" Certainly, I shall acquiesce." The " consti- 
tutional difficulty " was similar in both countries. 
The French Republic forbade the sale of French 
property without the consent of the Chambers, 
which was not given; and Jefferson held that 
the United States had no constitutional author- 
ity to purchase foreign territory. He spoke of 
*' the necessity of shutting up the Constitution 
for a time." Napoleon took the matter in his 
own hands, and Jefferson took it in his. A 
litde later, in another matter, Matthew Lyon, 
a representative in Congress from Kentucky, 
compared Jefferson to Napoleon. What the 
wily Talleyrand called " the empire of circum- 
stances" was in control. Napoleon sold what 



56 Iowa: the First Free State 

he was " certain to lose," as he told his brother 
Lucien. Sixteen days after the treaty, England 
declared war against France, and a British fleet 
would have captured New Orleans, had it still 
belonged to France. Jefferson suggested a 
constitutional amendment, and Madison drew 
up one. Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur 
Morris thought it unnecessary, that the United 
States had complete power, and the suggestion 
fell to the ground. The country generally, and 
Jefferson himself, concurred. He said, " In 
seizing the fugitive occurrence which so much 
advances the good of the country, the Execu- 
tive has done an act beyond the Constitu- 
tion, but we shall not be disowned by the 
nation." 

Pursuant to the treaty, France appointed a 
commissioner (M. Laussat) to receive the gov- 
ernment of Louisiana from the Spanish authori- 
ties and transfer it to the United States, Spain 
having withdrawn its protest at the dictation ot 
Napoleon, and Congress authorized the Presi- 
dent to take possession. Accordingly, on the 
thirtieth of November, Laussat exhibited to the 



in the Louisiana Purchase 57 

Spanish authorities at New Orleans an order for 
the deliverance of the province, and his creden- 
tials from France to receive it. The keys of the 
city were handed to him, the Spanish flag was 
lowered on the public square, and the French flag 
was raised. For twenty days France remained 
in possession, awaiting the arrival of the United 
States commissioners. Another ceremony was 
gone through with at the same place on the 
twentieth of December, when the commissioners, 
Governor Claiborne, of Mississippi Territory, 
and General James Wilkinson, of the United 
States Army, arrived, and they received the prov- 
ince. A body of American troops was present. 
The day was fine. A large crowd assembled. 
The treaty and the credentials of the commis- 
sioners were read. Laussat then gave the keys 
of the city to Claiborne, and proclaimed the 
transfer of Louisiana to the United States. The 
• French flag came down, and the American flag 
went up. As they met in mid-air, cannon and 
guns resounded with salutes to both flags. On 
the same day Governor Claiborne issued a proc- 
lamation declaring the authority of Spain and 



58 Iowa: the First Free State 

France at an end, and the establishment of that 
of the United States of America. He assured 
the people that they were received as brothers, 
and would have the free enjoyment of their 
liberty, property, and religion, and all the rights 
and advantages of American citizens. 

The following spring, similar ceremonies took 
place at St. Louis. Captain Amos Stoddard, of 
the United States Artillery, was commissioned to 
act for both the French Republic and the United 
States. On the ninth of March, 1804, he re- 
ceived for France the government of Upper 
Louisiana from Don Carlos de Hault de Lassus, 
the Spanish Lieutenant-Governor, who was a 
man of high character, French by birth, but 
long in the Spanish service, a personal friend of 
General William Henry Harrison, then Governor 
of the adjoining Indiana Territory. On the next 
day, the tenth of March, Captain Stoddard, act- 
ing for both countries, transferred the govern- 
ment from France, and received it for the United 
States. On one day the flag of Spain gave way 
to that of France ; on the next day the flag of 
France gave way to that of the United States. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 59 

While some of the French inhabitants looked 
sadly upon the scene, others welcomed the 
change. Auguste Chouteau called for cheers 
when the Stars and Stripes was unfurled. The 
population of Upper Louisiana at the time was 
reported to be ten thousand, one hundred and 
twenty, of which about one thousand were blacks, 
mostly slaves. Captain Stoddard, " first civil 
Commandant of Upper Louisiana," in a circular 
addressed to the inhabitants, assured them of 
'* the justice and integrity of President Jeffer- 
son ; that the acquisition of Louisiana would per- 
petuate his fame to posterity; that he had the 
most beneficent views for their happiness ; that 
they were divested of the character of subjects, 
and clothed with that of citizens; that they 
would have popular suffrage, trial by jury, a 
confirmation of their land titles, a territorial 
government, to be succeeded by their admission 
as a State into the Federal Union ; and he in- 
dulged the hope that Upper Louisiana would 
become a star of no inconsiderable magnitude 
in the American constellation." 

It was the policy of President Jefferson not to 



6o Iowa: the First Free State 

interfere with the Indians in Louisiana, except 
for their friendship and trade, and to encourage 
the removal of all the Indians on the east side 
of the Mississippi to the west side. He said, 
*' When the American people have filled up the 
east side, we may lay off a range of States on 
the west side from the head to the mouth, and 
so range after range advance compactly as we 
multiply." Until this time he suggested shut- 
ting up the west side of the Mississippi from 
settlement by the white people. 

A "Description of Louisiana," which the 
President sent to Congress, enumerates the In- 
dians who were at this time in what is now Iowa, 
or upon its borders : 

" On the River Moingona or Riviere de Moine are 
the Ajoues (lowas), a nation originally from the 
Missouri. It consisted of two hundred warriors, be- 
fore the smallpox lately raged among them. 

"The Sacs and Reynards (Foxes) live together on 
the Mississippi, and consist of five hundred warriors ; 
they frequently trade at St. Louis, but their chief trade 
is with Mackinaw. 

" On the Missouri, the Omahas with five hundred 
warriors in 1 799, but said to have been almost cut off 



in the Louisiana Purchase 6i 

last year by smallpox ; the Otoes and Pawnees with 
two hundred and fifty warriors ; the Sioux, between 
the Mississippi and the Missouri, a great impediment 
to trade and navigation, massacring all who fall into 
their hands ; and other nations concerning whom but 
little information has been received." 

For twenty years an exploration of the Mis- 
souri River, and the discovery of a passage from 
its headwaters to the Pacific Ocean, had been 
upon the mind of Mr. Jefferson. Previous to 
the purchase of Louisiana, he had sent a confi- 
dential message to Congress asking an appro- 
priation of twenty-five hundred dollars for the 
object, which Congress voted. The work was 
immediately undertaken; and one of the great- 
est feats in geographical discovery and adven- 
ture was accomplished in two years and a half. 

The exploring party of Lewis and Clark ar- 
rived at St. Louis in December, 1803, and had 
planned to winter with Daniel Boone at the 
furthermost settlement on the Missouri River. 
But the Spanish governor had not received 
official notice of the transfer of the province, 
and would not consent. They wintered on the 



62 Iowa: the First Free State 

east side of the Mississippi, opposite the mouth 
of the Missouri, and on the fourteenth of May, 
1804, they entered the river. They reached 
what is now the western boundary of Iowa on 
the eighteenth of July, and sailed along that 
boundary to the mouth of the Big Sioux River 
August 21. A few miles above the present city 
of Council Bluffs they observed on the east side 
of the river " a spot where the Ajouway (Iowa) 
Indians formerly lived, who had emigrated to 
the River Des Moines." On the twenty-eighth 
of July they went into camp for six days on 
the west side of the river, in what is now 
Washington County, Nebraska, and held a 
council with several Indian tribes. They called 
the place ** Council Bluffs." 

On the twentieth of August occurred the only 
tragic incident of the whole voyage of Lewis 
and Clark, — the death of Sergeant Charles 
Floyd. His comrades buried him on the top 
of a bluff, to which they gave his name. They 
marked the spot with a cedar post inscribed 
with his name and the date of his death. Two 
years later, on their return, they again ascended 



in the Louisiana Purchase 63 

the bluff, September 6, 1806, and put the grave 
in order. George Catlin was there in 1832, 
and paid his tribute to the " sleeping monarch 
of this land of silence, sole tenant of this 
stately mound." In 1839, Jean Nicollet "re- 
placed the signal the winds had blown down, 
which marks the spot and hallows the memory 
of the brave sergeant." In May, 1857, the 
remains, which had been nearly washed away 
by heavy floods, were reinterred by the people 
of Sioux City with services of honor. **The 
cedar was as sound as the day it was placed 
there, though it had been whittled down by 
relic-hunters." On the thirtieth of May, in the 
first year of the twentieth century, 190 1, a 
lofty obelisk, erected by the Floyd Memorial 
Association of Sioux City, John H. Charles, 
President, was dedicated to his memory, and to 
the honor of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 
with imposing ceremonies, and an eloquent 
oration by John A. Kasson, on ** The Expan- 
sion of the Republic West of the Mississippi." * 

* "Annals of Iowa." First Series, viii., 31-34. Third 
Series, v., 148-149, 177-198. 



64 Iowa: the First Free State 



VI 

IN THE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA UNDER 

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIANA 

TERRITORY 

1804-1805 

CONGRESS was in session when the Gov- 
ernment took possession of Louisiana. 
An act, approved March 26, 1804, extended 
over it the constitution and laws of the United 
States. Everything inconsistent therewith was 
declared invalid. The act provided for trial by- 
jury, for liberty of worship, every man free to 
maintain his own religious opinions, and not 
burdened for those of another. The particular 
disposition and government of the vast area 
became at once a great question with the 
American people, dividing them in opinion 
for two and three generations, embarrassing, 
embittering, endangering the life of the nation. 
Slavery had existed in Louisiana under 



in the Louisiana Purchase 65 

France and Spain, as in the English colonies 
under Great Britain. The United States had 
cast off the British yoke, but not the slavery 
which British rule had imposed on the colonies 
despite remonstrances from those colonies. 
France had proclaimed universal emancipation, 
but French vessels still carried on the slave 
trade and brought negroes from Africa into 
New Orleans, even after the city was trans- 
ferred to the United States. Spain at one 
time prohibited the slave trade, but removed 
the prohibition in 1783, "to favor the com- 
mercial interest," and slaves were brought into 
New Orleans from Africa and the West Indies 
in British and American vessels, the latter 
belonging to Newport, Rhode Island. "The 
only time I ever heard the slave trade defended 
in Congress was by a member from Rhode 
Island," said Nathaniel Macon. 

The idea of strengthening slavery, or " the 
Slave Power," in the language of a later day, 
by the purchase of Louisiana, was not in any 
man's mind. That idea did not then exist. It 
was foreign to the national consciousness of the 



66 Iowa: the First Free State 

time. There was no distinction then between 
slaveholding and nonslaveholding States. It 
belongs to a later day. Slavery was then 
under a general ban. It was expected that 
the principles of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence would do away with it. The whole coun- 
try had united in putting those principles into 
effect by prohibiting slavery in the Northwest 
Territory by the Ordinance of 1787. The 
members of Congress of that year from Dela- 
ware, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and 
Georgia, voted for the Ordinance, and it was 
ratified and confirmed in 1789, by the First 
Congress under the Constitution. 

Some States had abolished slavery; some 
had adopted measures of gradual emancipation. 
Every Southern State, following the lead of 
Virginia in 1778, prohibited the importation 
of slaves, though at this juncture South Caro- 
lina went back on itself, and authorized the 
importation of slaves for four years, 1804- 1807. 
In this period forty thousand slaves were 
brought into Charleston, mostly in British ships. 
The character of the trade may be inferred from 



in the Louisiana Purchase 67 

a reminiscence given in Congress a century 
later by a senator from South Carolina: 

" I happened in my boyhood to see some real 
Africans fresh from their native jungles. The last 
cargo of slaves imported into this country were 
brought here in 1858, on the yacht Wanderer, landed 
on an island below Savannah, and sneaked by the 
United States Marshal up the Savannah River, a little 
distance below Augusta ; and my family bought some 
thirty of them. These poor wretches, half starved 
on their voyage across the Atlantic, shut down and 
battened under the hatches, and fed a litde rice, 
several hundred of them, were the most miserable lot 
of human beings — the nearest to the missing link 
with the monkey — I have ever put my eyes on." * 

At this time there were friends of slavery in 
the country, who saw that *' their interest would 
be strengthened by the immense acquisition 
of territory to the United States," as was stated 
in Congress by Thomas Lowndes, a sagacious 
representative from South Carolina. In the 
world at large the idea of property in man was 
not reprobated as ''a guilty fantasy." The 

* Congressional Record, xxxvi., 2800. 



68 Iowa: the First Free State 

United States was handicapped by the treaty 
which promised ** protection to property " ; and 
slaves were property. 

There were differences of opinion as to what 
should be done. Congress was memorialized 
to prohibit slavery. It was held that the obliga- 
tion of the treaty might be fulfilled, by applying 
prohibition not to slaves then there, but to 
children born and persons coming afterwards 
into the territory. Rufus King, who had acted 
an accessory part with Livingston in the nego- 
tiation of the treaty, asked, " May not the 
acquisition of the west side of the Mississippi 
prove pernicious instead of beneficial?" It 
was his conviction that slave representation in 
Congress and in the Electoral College should 
not be extended to the Louisiana States.* 

A twofold course was adopted. Congress 
divided Louisiana into two parts, by the 33d 
degree of north latitude, with a different legis- 
lation for each part. The south part was 
constituted the Territory of Orleans, with a 
government similar to that of the adjoining 

* Rufus King. '• Life and Correspondence," iv., 324, 569. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 69 

Territory of Mississippi, organized six years 
before, and the President transferred the 
governor of Mississippi Territory to be 
governor of Orleans Territory. 

The Ordinance of 1787 had been applied to 
the Mississippi Territory upon its organization, 
'* excepting and excluding the last Article " ; 
which declared, " there shall be neither slavery 
nor involuntary servitude." The freedom that 
dawned upon the Northwest in 1787 was ex- 
cluded from the Southwest in 1798. 

As the constitutional limitation upon Con- 
gress not to prohibit the importation of slaves 
into any of the original States before 1808, did 
not apply beyond those States, and as Congress, 
when establishing the Territory of Mississippi, 
prohibited the importation of slaves into it, so 
now Congress prohibited the importation of 
slaves into the Territory of Orleans. Congress 
enacted further that no slave brought into the 
United States since May i, 1798, nor any who 
might be brought hereafter, should be brought 
into the Territory of Orleans, and also that no 
slave should be brought in except by a citizen 



70 Iowa: the First Free State 

of the United States removing for actual set- 
tlement, and bona fide owner of said slave. 

These restrictions show the humane and 
enlightened spirit of the nation at the time, but 
they were disregarded. The President and the 
Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, 
struggled in vain to enforce them. Many 
slaves were smuggled into New Orleans. 
Slavery set the laws at defiance. 

The same act of Congress that established 
the Territory of Orleans made a different law 
for the part of the purchase north of the thirty- 
third parallel. This was named the District of 
Louisiana, and its government was vested in the 
governor and judges of Indiana Territory. The 
Indiana Territory of that time extended to the 
Mississippi, and was immediately contiguous to 
the District of Louisiana, as the Mississippi 
Territory was to the Orleans Territory. The 
inhabitants of both sides of the upper Missis- 
sippi were in close communication with each 
other from the first settlement of the country. 
Under France they had been under one govern- 
ment. St. Genevieve and St. Louis were settled 



in the Louisiana Purchase 71 

by people from the east side. In commerce 
and trade St. Louis was called " St. Louis of 
Illinois." From their historical relations and 
their contiguity, it was fitting that the two 
sides of the upper Mississippi should be under 
one rule again. The law took efifect October 
I, 1804. On that day the Governor of Indiana 
Territory, William Henry Harrison, was es- 
corted by a cavalcade of people from the east 
side to St. Louis, as Governor also of the 
District of Louisiana on the west side. 

Indiana Territory existed under the Ordi- 
nance of 1787. In placing the District of 
Louisiana under its government Congress did 
not " except and exclude " the article that 
prohibited slavery. This was a promise of 
freedom for the district and its vast area, but 
it proved illusive. The promise was spurned. 
Remonstrances against it were sent to Congress. 
It was said that " placing the District under a 
Territory where slavery is proscribed, is calcu- 
lated to alarm the people and create the 
presumption of a disposition in Congress to 
abolish slavery in the District at a future day." 



72 Iowa: the First Free State 

Congress was asked " to acknowledge that in 
view of the treaty the people were entitled to 
their slaves, and to the right of importing 
slaves." John Randolph, of the committee to 
which the remonstrance was referred, reported 
that " a prohibition of the importation of for- 
eign slaves was a wise and salutary restriction, 
equally dictated by humanity and policy." A 
year before, upon a petition from some citizens 
of Indiana Territory for a suspension of that 
Article of the Ordinance which prohibited 
slavery, on the ground that it prevented the 
immigration of persons who would come if they 
could bring their slaves with them, Mr. Ran- 
dolph reported it *' dangerous and inexpedient 
to impair a provision wisely calculated to 
promote the happiness and prosperity of the 
northwestern country, and that in the salutary 
operation of this sagacious and benevolent 
restraint the inhabitants would find ample 
remuneration for a temporary privation of 
labor and immigration." 

Congress denied the petition from Indiana 
Territory, to the incalculable advantage of the 



in the Louisiana Purchase 73 

States afterwards formed out of it, but succumbed 
to the demand from the west side of the Missis- 
sippi, to its detriment for many years. Gov- 
ernor Harrison and the judges associated with 
him enacted " a law respecting slaves " for the 
District of Louisiana, so that slavery was 
fastened upon the whole purchase from the 
Gulf of Mexico to the British line. The same 
authority constituted the inhabited portion 
north of the Missouri River the District of St. 
Charles. It included the settlements of Tesson, 
Dubuque, and Girard in what is now Iowa, and 
their names appear in the American State 
Papers* as in St. Charles County. 

It was the policy of President Jefferson, be- 
fore the Louisiana Purchase, to obtain from the 
Indians a cession of lands upon the Mississippi, 
in order to strengthen the then western boun- 
dary of the United States, in view of compli- 
cations that might arise with Spain or France. 
Governor Harrison had previously obtained a 
cession of what is now Southern Illinois from 
the remnant of the Kaskaskias and other tribes. 

* " Public Lands," iii., 332, 345. 



74 Iowa: the First Free State 

Those Indians wanted the protection and friend- 
ship of the United States against their enemies, 
and were willing to sell their lands for goods 
and annuities. Governor Harrison was now 
instructed to procure a cession of land farther 
up the Mississippi, where the Sacs and Foxes 
were in possession. It was important to 
pacify these warlike tribes, and attach them to 
the American interest. Governor Harrison 
made a treaty with five of their chiefs and 
head men at St. Louis, November 3, 1804, by 
which the United States received the united 
Sac and Fox tribes into its friendship and protec- 
tion, and those tribes agreed to consider them- 
selves under the protection of the United States, 
and of no other power, and they ceded to the 
United States on the west side of the Mississippi 
the land now constituting the county of St. 
Charles, in the State of Missouri, then occupied 
by a small French population, and on the east 
side their lands from the IlHnois River to the 
Wisconsin River. It afterwards appeared that 
one-half the cession on the east side, the land 
from Rock River to the Wisconsin, belonged to 



in the Louisiana Purchase 75 

the Winnebagoes, not to the Sacs and Foxes. 
In consideration of the cession, the United 
States gave the Sacs and Foxes goods to the 
value of two thousand, two hundred and thirty- 
four dollars, and promised them one thousand 
dollars annually, to be expended for their 
benefit in domestic animals, implements of 
husbandry, and in compensation to useful 
artificers to reside among them. The United 
States also agreed, in order to save the Sacs 
and Foxes from the abuses and impositions of 
private traders, to establish a trading-house 
or factory where they could be supplied with 
goods at a reasonable rate. The Sacs and 
Foxes, ** in order to show the sincerity of their 
friendship for the United States and a respect- 
ful deference for their advice, by an act not only 
acceptable to them but to the Common Father 
of all the nations of the earth," agreed to put 
an end to their bloody war with the Osages. 
The cession covered only a small portion of the 
lands claimed by the Sacs and Foxes. The 
vast region on the west side of the Mississippi 
from the Missouri River to the Sioux country 



76 Iowa: the First Free State 

remained theirs, and they were to enjoy the 
protection of the United States in its posses- 
sion, and also the privilege of living and hunting 
upon the ceded lands until the United States 
should make sale of them. 

The District of Louisiana under the govern- 
ment of Indiana Territory had an existence of 
only nine months. It was obnoxious to the 
people of St. Louis. They sent a remonstrance 
against it to Congress, in which they claimed 
the right of importing slaves under the treaty of 
cession from France. Congress listened to their 
petition for a change of government. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 77 



B 



VII 

IN THE TERRITORY OF LOUISIANA 

1805-1812 
Y act of Congress, the District of Louisiana 



became the Territory of Louisiana on the 
fourth day of July, 1805; the Governor and 
Judges were required to reside in the Territory, 
and were empowered to make laws. President 
Jefferson appointed General James Wilkinson 
Governor. The appointment contravened the 
President's general policy against mixing mili- 
tary and civil offices, but he justified it in 
this case on the ground that the duty would 
be chiefly military. Governor Wilkinson ap- 
pointed Henry Dodge lieutenant of militia in 
the district of St. Genevieve. 

On the ninth of August, 1805, Lieutenant 
Zebulon M. Pike, an able and efficient young 
officer of the United States Army, under in- 
structions from General Wilkinson, sailed from 



yS Iowa: the First Free State 

St. Louis upon an exploring expedition to the 
sources of the Mississippi. He was instructed 
to note the rivers, islands, rapids, highlands, 
mines, quarries, Indian nations, the tracts of 
country on which they made their hunts, the 
quantity and species of skins and furs they 
bartered per annum, the prices of these rela- 
tive to goods, and the people with whom they 
traded, and to examine strictly for an interme- 
diate point between St. Louis and Prairie du 
Chien, suitable for a military post, and also for 
a similar post near the Wisconsin River. 

On the twentieth of August the expedition 
reached the mouth of the Des Moines River. 
After much difficulty in passing the Rapids 
they came to a Sac village, and told the Indians 
in a friendly '' talk " of the purpose of their 
great father, the President, to estabhsh a trad- 
ing-house among them. On the twenty-third of 
August they came to " a handsome situation 
for a garrison," where is now Crapo Park in 
the city of Burlington. At Rock River they 
met Black Hawk, who recalled the scene 
twenty-eight years afterwards' 



in the Louisiana Purchase 79 

" Lieutenant Pike gave us some presents, and said 
our American father would treat us well. He pre- 
sented us an American flag, which we hoisted. He 
then requested us to lower the British colors, which 
were waving in the air, and to give him our British 
medals. This we declined to do, as we wanted to 
have two fathers. He went to the head of the 
Mississippi, and then returned to St. Louis. We did 
not see any American again for some time, being 
supplied with goods by British traders." * 

They encamped, August 27, on the site of 
the city of Davenport. On the thirty-first they 
passed " a beautiful eminence that had the 
appearance of an old tov^rn " (site of Bellevue, 
Jackson County). On the first of September 
they reached the mines of Monsieur Dubuque, 
v^ho ** saluted them with a field-piece, and 
received them with every mark of attention." 
Dubuque said that he was making from twenty 
to forty thousand pounds of lead a year. He 
informed Lieutenant Pike that the Sioux were 
at war with the Chippeways up the river. On 
the fourth of September Pike arrived at Prairie 

* " Black Hawk's Autobiography," by J. B. Patterson, 
edition 1882, p. 21. 



8o Iowa: the First Free State 

du Chien. The next day he ascended the bluff 
on the opposite side of the river, the site of 
McGregor, and made choice of " a command- 
ing spot, level on top, a spring in the rear, 
most suitable for a military post." It was long 
known as " Pike's Hill." September lO, near 
the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, Wabashaw, 
chief of the four lower bands of the Sioux, 
received them kindly, and they smoked to- 
gether the pipe of peace. Here they wit- 
nessed a medicine dance, men and women, 
gaily dressed, dancing indiscriminately, each 
puffing and blowing at one another, one falling 
apparently dead, then rising and joining in the 
dance. The expedition was twenty-one days in 
passing along what is the eastern boundary of 
the State of Iowa from the southern to the 
northern limit. They kept on their voyage 
until the Mississippi was closed by ice, when 
they made long marches to its headwaters, and 
established the authority of the United States 
over the vast area. Finding the British flag 
flying at the posts of British traders, they 
supplanted it with the American flag. De- 



.„a«.r>ri ^ J«ra 



liV«^ 



Mr.I>ubu<ttte» Haute 




gfiku UiUj 



"'y^J^^^ 



Map drawn from the Notes of Lieutenant Pike 



in the Louisiana Purchase 8 1 

scending the river in the spring of 1806, they 
fell in with many Indians, some of whom gave 
up their British medals. At one place they saw 
some two hundred naked savages in a game of 
" cross," Sioux on one side, Foxes and Winne- 
bagoes on the other, contending for hours to 
keep a ball in midair. 

Lieutenant Pike noted the settlements of 
Giard, Dubuque, and Tesson, the only white 
people then in Iowa. On his map an " Ajouwa 
village " is put down on the Des Moines River. 
He reported the Sacs and Foxes as 4,600 
souls, 1,250 warriors; lowas, 1,400 souls, 300 
warriors. In his opinion the prairies should be 
left to the wandering savages, as incapable of 
cultivation. 

In June, 1808, the St. Genevieve Academy 
was incorporated by the legislature of the 
Territory. Henry Dodge was one of the origi- 
nal trustees. It was the first institution of 
learning west of the Mississippi River. The 
law provided for instruction in English and 
French, for the instruction of the children of 
poor people and those of the Indians gratis, 

6 



§2 Iowa: the First Free State 

the establishment of an institution for the 
education of females as soon as the funds would 
admit of it, and forbade any discrimination 
in the choice of trustees or teachers on account 
of religious sentiments, or any interference with 
the rights of conscience or the free exercise of 
religious worship. 

After the return of Lewis and Clark from their 
expedition to the Pacific, the President made 
Captain Lewis Governor of Louisiana Territory, 
and Captain Clark Brigadier-General and 
Indian Agent for the Territory. To carry out 
a provision of the treaty of November, 1804, 
for establishing a trading-house or factory 
among the Sacs and Foxes, Governor Lewis 
held a council with them at St. Louis, August, 
1808, and with the lowas. They agreed upon 
a cession of land for that purpose. President 
Jefferson felt a lively interest in the matter. 
He regarded it of the highest importance to 
cultivate friendship with our ^' red brethren," 
as he called them, and to promote their civili- 
zation by equity and fair dealing in trade. He 
said : 



in the Louisiana Purchase 83 

"We must prohibit the British from appearing 
west of the Mississippi, break up all their factories 
west of Lake Michigan, nor permit them to send 
out traders to the Indian towns, putting our own 
commerce under the same regulations. I think well 
of Governor Lewis's proposition to carry on all our 
commerce west of the Mississippi at fixed points, 
obliging the Indians to come to the commerce, 
instead of sending it to them. With the Sacs and 
Foxes I hope he will be able to settle amicably, as 
nothing ought more to be avoided than a system of 
military coercion on the Indians. As soon as our 
factories on the Missouri and the Mississippi can be 
in activity, they will have more powerful effect than 
so many armies." * 

Despite Jefferson's peaceful policy, and the 
agreement of the Indians to live in peace, the 
Sacs and Foxes and lowas kept up their wars 
with the Osages, and waylaid and murdered 
settlers upon the frontier. In his last annual 
message the President spoke of the lowas and 
the Sacs as having " delivered up for trial and 
punishment individuals from among themselves, 
accused of murdering citizens of the United 
States." 

* Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 1853, v., 348-351. 



84 Iowa: the First Free State 

Pursuant to the treaty of 1804, Lieutenant Al- 
pha Kingsley was sent in September, 1808, with 
a small company of the First United States In- 
fantry, to select a site for a factory. He fixed 
upon a place he called Belle Vue, *' about 
twenty-five miles above Le Moine." Store- 
houses were erected by the soldiers, who had 
extra pay for the work at the rate of ten cents 
per day, and one gill of whisky for each man. 
The first winter ten thousand dollars' worth of 
goods was sold to the Indians in exchange for 
beaver, otter, deer, bear, muskrat, and raccoon 
skins, and beeswax and tallow. One year the 
business amounted to thirty-nine thousand dol- 
lars. For the safety of the establishment, a small 
fort was built with bastions and stockade. It was 
called Fort Madison, for the new President. The 
site was upon the river bank, and was selected for 
convenience of trade rather than for military de- 
fence. It was afterwards seen that a site on 
higher ground would have been* more secure 
against an enemy. 

British traders were jealous of the factory. 
They had smuggled goods through Green Bay 



in the Louisiana Purchase 85 

and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers into the 
Mississippi, and wanted a monopoly of the trade. 
They poisoned the Indian mind against Fort 
Madison. Trickery and treachery were com- 
mon to the savages. On one occasion they 
formed a plot to enter the fort under guise of 
giving a dance, and capture it with weapons 
concealed under their blankets ; but an Indian 
maiden revealed the plot to a young officer, and 
it was foiled by a counterplot that opened a 
masked cannon upon the savages as they danced 
and began to whoop and yell. 

After the battle of Tippecanoe, November 7, 
181 1, some Winnebagoes and Sacs who had 
been with Tecumseh started under Black Hawk 
to attack Fort Madison. They were supplied 
with ammunition by British traders. Black 
Hawk in his autobiography says that he dug a 
hole in the ground and concealed himself by 
placing weeds around it, and from his ambush 
directed his warriors. They beleaguered the 
fort, hurled firebrands upon the buildings, and 
killed three men, when their ammunition gave 
out, and they abandoned the siege. 



86 Iowa: the First Free State 

On the twenty-fourth of March, 1810, JuHen 
Dubuque died, and the establishment which he 
had occupied for twenty-two years went to de- 
cay and ruin. No other man ever gained such 
consideration among the Fox Indians. They 
buried him with the honors of a chief. Soon 
after his death, the residue of his claim was sold 
at St. Louis for the payment of his debts, under 
the laws of the Territory of Louisiana, and his 
creditors sent up an armed force to take posses- 
sion of the mines. But the Indians drove them 
off. They would suffer no white man among 
them. They worked the mines themselves in a 
crude way, squaws doing the work. Dubuque's 
St. Louis creditors appealed to Congress in vain 
for relief Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the 
Treasury, disallowed their title. It was de- 
cided adversely by the United States Supreme 
Court, 1854, on the ground that the confirma- 
tion by Governor Carondelet of the permission 
given by the Fox Indians to work the mines 
carried no grant of land. In 1897 ^he people 
of the city of Dubuque erected a monument to 
the memory of the first white man who made a 



in the Louisiana Purchase 87 

settlement in Iowa. It stands upon the site of 
his grave. 

In 181 1 a change in the form of government 
of Louisiana Territory was under deliberation in 
Congress. It was proposed to prohibit slavery 
in that part of the Territory which lies north of 
the parallel of latitude that runs through the 
mouth of the Ohio River. Jonathan Roberts, 
afterwards senator from Pennsylvania, said that 
he gave his maiden vote for it in the House of 
Representatives, and that he was not then told 
that the proposition was unconstitutional, or in 
violation of the treaty of cession, but that we 
were on the eve of war with England, with al- 
most half of the country infatuated with the 
spirit of opposition to the Government, and that 
further dissension at that time might be fatal.* 
The question was deferred. 

* Abridgment of Debates in Congress, Benton, vi., 431. 



88 Iowa: the First Free State 



VIII 
IN THE TERRITORY OF MISSOURI 
1812-1821 

THE people of Orleans Territory having 
organized a State government and named 
it Louisiana, and the State being admitted 
into the Union in April, 18 12, Congress gave 
another name to the Territory of Louisiana, 
and called it the Territory of Missouri, the 
boundaries remaining as before, that is, cov- 
ering the whole of the Louisiana Purchase 
north of the thirty-third parallel. William 
Clark was Governor, and continued in office 
through the whole life of the Territory. 
A native of Connecticut, Edward Hempstead, 
was chosen delegate to Congress ; he was a 
man of character, efficient in securing legisla- 
tion for the support of schools. 

On the eighteenth of June, 1812, Congress 
declared war against England. In the Eastern 



in the Louisiana Purchase 89 

States it was a war for " free trade and sail- 
ors* rights." In the West, on the part of 
England, it was a "traders' war," to keep the 
Indian trade and the Indian country in the 
hands of the British fur companies. To this 
end the British traders supplied the Indians 
with arms. Tecumseh said to a British gen- 
eral, *'You gave us the tomahawk; you told 
us that you were ready to strike the Ameri- 
cans, that you wanted our assistance, that 
you would get us our lands back." He had 
visited the Sacs of Rock River, the lowas, 
and other tribes, to secure their alliance. 
Black Hawk and his warriors were enlisted 
in the British service. A British officer gave 
him a British flag, and placed a ** Royal 
George" medal around his neck, saying, 
"Your English father has found out that 
the Americans want to take your lands, 
and he has sent me and his braves to 
drive them back to their own country." In 
the course of the summer Mackinaw and 
Detroit were captured, and the garrison at 
Chicago massacred. For more than a year 



90 Iowa: the First Free State 

Fort Madison was threatened with a similar 
fate. It was a lone post, two hundred and 
fifty miles from its base of supplies at St. 
Louis, and the most northern spot on the 
Mississippi where the authority of the United 
States was represented by soldiers and the flag. 
The garrison consisted of about one hundred 
men, officers, and privates ; there were also a 
few men in charge of the factory, or trading- 
house, which the government had erected, 
pursuant to the treaty of 1 804. 

On the fifth of October and the two follow- 
ing days a party of Winnebagoes beleaguered 
the fort. They shot blazing arrows and hurled 
burning brands upon the block houses, de- 
stroyed the corn-fields, killed the live-stock, and 
killed and scalped a soldier who had exposed 
himself outside the fort. By direction of the 
commanding officer. Lieutenant Thomas Hamil- 
ton, at an evening hour when there was no wind 
and the fort not endangered, the factory was 
burned to save its contents from falling into 
the hands of the savages, at an estimated loss 
of fifty-five hundred dollars. A contempo- 



in the Louisiana Purchase 91 

rary report says : " Lieutenants Hamilton and 
Barony Vasquez have done themselves much 
credit in the defence of the post. No Hves 
were lost in the fort. Many Indians must 
have been killed." * Some of the military 
authorities proposed the evacuation of the 
fort, but General Benjamin Howard, in com- 
mand at St. Louis, objected that it might 
embolden the Indians. He also said that an 
expedition to erect a garrison commanding 
the mouth of the Wisconsin River was con- 
templated, and that Fort Madison would be 
of service in the prosecution of the expedition. 
In April, 181 3, General Howard visited the 
fort on an inspection tour and advised holding 
it, though the necessary preparation for evac- 
uation might go on. The fort was twice 
attacked in July, and in the morning of the 
sixteenth of that month a corporal and 
three privates were surprised at an outpost 
and butchered. The Indians occupied higher 
ground, and kept up the siege, so that no one 

*Niles' Register, October 31, 1812. ** Annals of Iowa." 
Third Series, iii., 105. 



92 Iowa: the First Free State 

dared venture outside the fort. There were 
many soldiers on the sick-list. As the sup- 
plies were about exhausted, and promised rein- 
forcements failed to arrive, some feared the 
fate of their butchered companions, and it was 
concluded to abandon the fort. A trench was 
dug to the river. In the night of September 3 
the men moved down the trench on their hands 
and knees to boats on the shore ; the order 
was given to set fire to the block-houses and 
barracks; and the garrison were on their way 
down the Mississippi, and the fort was in 
flames, before the savages, lying within gunshot, 
were aware of the movement. The stone chim- 
ney of the fort remained standing for several 
years. The site was known as " Lone Chimney." 
The Indians called it '' Po-to-wo-nock," the place 
of fire. 

Prominent in Missouri Territory for his 
military services was Henry Dodge. From 
captain of a mounted rifle company at the 
beginning of the war he rose to the rank of 
brigadier-general by appointment of President 
Madison. By his courage and skill, having 




^^OulAAyyv-ey^-hjc^ (2^2eyyi^>~x^ . 



in the Louisiana Purchase 93 

great knowledge of Indian character, himself 
perfectly fearless, he overawed and composed 
hostile and wavering bands, and protected the 
frontier settlements. Notable among his ac- 
tions was saving the lives of a band of Miamis 
that General Harrison had sent west of the 
Mississippi in order to put them out of 
the way of British influence. These Indians 
proved perfidious, and became a terror to the 
settlements on the Missouri River. General 
Dodge was sent to chastise and correct them. 
On reaching their village it was found deserted. 
They had taken to the woods. On being col- 
lected together, they gave up their arms and 
the booty taken from the settlers whom they 
had robbed and murdered ; they only begged 
that their lives be spared. The General 
accepted their surrender, and was making 
preparations to send them back to their 
former country, when a troop of " Boone's 
Lickers," whose kindred and neighbors had 
been plundered and slain by the Miamis, rode 
up, intent to kill every one of them. The 
instant General Dodge was informed of this 



94 Iowa: the First Free State 

he rode to the spot where the Miamis were 
upon their knees, a death-prayer to the 
Manitou on their Hps, and the " Boone's 
Lickers " in the act of leveUing their guns 
upon them. Spurring his horse between the 
guns and the Indians, he placed the point of 
his sword at the bosom of the captain of 
the troop and forbade the shooting. After 
some harsh words the captain ordered his 
men to put up their guns. The Miamis 
expressed the warmest gratitude to General 
Dodge for saving their Hves. They were 
soon conducted to St. Louis and conveyed 
to their home on the Wabash. General 
Dodge, recalling the scene in later years, 
said that he felt more pride and gratification 
in having saved the lives of his Miami 
prisoners than in any triumph in arms. 

In order to break up a nest of British 
traders and hostile Indians on the upper 
Mississippi, Governor Clark early in May, 
1 8 14, went up the river with a gunboat and 
barges, and one hundred and fifty volunteers 
and sixty regulars, and built a fort at Prairie 



in the Louisiana Purchase 95 

du Chien. The Governor returned to St. 
Louis, leaving the troops to hold the fort ; but 
an overwhelming force of British and Indians 
compelled its capitulation on the seventeenth 
of July. About the same time, troops on the 
way up the river with reinforcements and sup- 
phes, under Captain John Campbell, met with 
a furious assault from the Sacs and Foxes at 
Rock Island. The savages were marshalled by 
Black Hawk, and swarmed about the boats on 
both sides of the river. They killed nine, 
wounded sixteen of the Americans, captured 
one of the boats with its stores, and compelled 
a retreat. The British commander at Prairie 
du Chien reported it as " perhaps the most 
brilliant action fought by Indians only, since 
the commencement of the war." 

To chastise those Indians and destroy their 
villages and corn-fields, another force was sent 
from St. Louis in August under Major Zachary 
Taylor. Approaching Rock Island, a British 
flag was seen flying, and a cannon-shot that 
struck Major Taylor's boat gave him the first 
warning that a British force would dispute his 



96 Iowa: the First Free State 

passage. A lieutenant from Prairie du Chien 
had come in answer to an appeal from the 
Indians, bringing a brass three-pounder and 
two swivels. They were posted on the west 
side of the river. At the same time bands of 
Foxes, Winnebagoes, and Sioux came down 
the Mississippi to help the Sacs. Black Hawk 
again marshalled the Indians on both sides of 
the river. The guns were well handled. The 
Indians dragged them from one position to 
another with high glee, and drowned each 
report of the guns with yells and acclaims. 
After fatal skirmishing (eleven men were 
badly wounded, three mortally), finding it im- 
possible to dislodge the enemy without en- 
dangering his whole command, Major Taylor 
retired down the river. This was on the sixth 
of September, 18 14. 

The British and their savage allies now held 
the upper Mississippi. Whether or no they 
should continue to hold it was one of the 
vital questions before the commissioners who 
had already been appointed to negotiate a 
peace between Great Britain and the United 



in the Louisiana Purchase 97 

States. A British officer sent this word to 
Black Partridge, a famous Pottawattamie chief, 
and to chiefs of other tribes: "When the 
French left Canada they asked us [the British] 
to take care of the Indians. We will do so; 
and unless the Americans abandon all the 
country on this side of the Ohio, we will not 
make peace with the Americans." The Brit- 
ish commissioners at their first meeting with 
the American commissioners, August 8, 18 14, 
insisted that the United States set apart a 
portion of the Northwest to the Indian tribes, 
to be held by them in sovereignty under a 
guarantee of Great Britain. They also asked 
the right of navigation for British subjects upon 
the Mississippi. However preposterous these 
demands, and denied as they were by the 
American commissioners, they show the Brit- 
ish animus of the time. The same summer 
the city of Washington was captured, the 
Capitol and the President's house were burned, 
and preparations were being made to capture 
New Orleans and take possession of Louisiana. 
At the same time it was expected that Spain 

7 



98 Iowa: the First Free State 

would cede Florida to England, so that the 
territory of the United States would then be 
circumscribed by England, be confined to its 
original limits, and there be a Greater Britain 
upon the American continent. This was the 
dream of British propagandists ; but the com- 
missioners yielded the points upon which they 
had insisted. It was agreed that the bounda- 
ries of the two countries remain as before the 
war ; and Spain still held Florida. The British 
traders had brought upon the Lakes and the 
Mississippi a larger supply of goods for the 
Indian trade than ever before. They hoped 
to retain their ascendancy and keep that trade. 
But after the peace the United States excluded 
them from that trade in our territory. " Their 
ascendancy over the Indians in the late war 
must be remembered," said Mr. Calhoun. He 
traced to it our greatest disasters in that 
war. 

In the treaty of peace Great Britain looked 
after its Indian allies, and provided that the 
United Spates should put an end to hostilities 
with them. Accordingly, the United States 



in the Louisiana Purchase 99 

summoned all the tribes upon the upper Mis- 
sissippi and Missouri rivers to meet in council 
in the interest of peace. They assembled in 
June, 18 1 5, at Portage des Sioux, upon the 
Mississippi, on the neck of land just above 
the mouth of the Missouri. It was a great 
assemblage of chiefs and warriors of many 
tribes. Governor Clark, Governor Edwards, of 
Illinois Territory, and Auguste Chouteau, of St. 
Louis, were the commissioners on the part of 
the United States. General Henry Dodge was 
present with a military force to preserve order 
and guard against surprises and disturbances. 
Treaties were made with twelve tribes, whose 
chiefs and warriors, one hundred and twenty- 
four in all, signed their respective treaties. In 
each treaty except that with the Sacs of Mis- 
souri River, who had kept peace with the United 
States, it was agreed that " every injury or act 
of hostility by one or either of the contracting 
parties shall be mutually forgiven and forgot, 
and there be perpetual peace and friendship 
between all the citizens of the United States 
and the individuals of each tribe." Several of 



lOO Iowa: the First Free State 

the tribes had their hunting-grounds in what is 
now Iowa. The Sacs of Missouri River and the 
Foxes assented to and confirmed the treaty of 
November 3, 1804, by which their lands east of 
the Mississippi were sold to the United States. 

The Sacs of Rock River, meanwhile, re- 
mained hostile. Pains were taken to con- 
ciliate them. They were invited to send a 
deputation of their chiefs to meet the commis- 
sioners. But they declined, and they continued 
their depredations upon the frontier settlements. 
Some warriors at Portage des Sioux offered 
to go and chastise them, but the United 
States " preferred their reclamation by peaceful 
measures," and awaited their return to a better 
mind. When Black Hawk first heard from 
the British commander at Prairie du Chien of 
the peace between England and America, that 
officer said that " Black Hawk cried like a 
child." Inveterate in his hostihty to the 
American people, his heart was with the British. 
His band was known as the " British Band." 
The next year he changed his mind, and went 
with some of his chiefs and warriors to St. 



in the Louisiana Purchase loi 

Louis, where they all signed a treaty in which 
they represented themselves as ** now implor- 
ing mercy, having repented of their conduct, 
and anxious to return to peace and friendship 
with the United States." They also declared 
their " unconditional assent to the treaty of 
November 3, 1804." Here for the first time 
Black Hawk touched the goose quill, "not 
knowing," he said seventeen years afterwards, 
" that by the act he consented to give away 
his village." He asked, ** What do we know 
of the laws and customs of the white people? " 

The original plan of the government, from 
the days of Washington, to establish factories 
for the Indian trade, and employ its own agents, 
was now abandoned, and the trade was thrown 
open to individuals and companies under " regu- 
lations," which were generally disregarded. 
John Jacob Astor bought the trading-posts 
and fixtures of the British traders, and he and 
others formed companies and made great 
profits. The Indians were exploited, as before, 
by British traders, whisky and the white man's 
vices making havoc among them. 



I02 Iowa: the First Free State 

A steamboat first reached St. Louis on the 
second day of August, 1817. On the sixteenth 
of May, 1 8 19, a steamboat first entered the 
Missouri River, and passed up to the mouth of 
Chariton River; later in the same year, the 
** Western Engineer," a Government steam- 
boat, passed along the western shore of Iowa 
to the Council Bluff of that time. They were 
the heralds of an advancing civilization, of a 
new people in the wilderness. The Indians 
were astonished and astounded at them. An 
extension of military defences followed, high 
up the Mississippi at Fort Snelling, and on the 
Missouri at the Council Bluff, under the ener- 
getic action of John C. Calhoun, then Secre- 
tary of War. Additional treaties of peace and 
friendship were made with other Indian tribes. 
This led to many new settlements in Missouri 
Territory. The population doubled in five 
years. There was a similar increase, though 
not as large, in the adjoining Territory of 
Illinois. In that Territory, though with less 
population than in the Territory of Missouri, 
the people, pursuant to an enabhng act of 



in the Louisiana Purchase 103 

Congress, organized a State government, and 
with a smaller population at the time than any- 
other State before or since, the State of Illinois 
was admitted into the Union, December 3, 
1818. 

At the same time the people of Missouri 
Territory were equally desirous of a State gov- 
ernment, and the Legislature sent a memorial 
to Congress on the subject. 

It stated that the — 

*' Population was little short of one hundred thousand 
souls, was daily increasing with a rapidity almost 
unequalled, and that the Territorial limits were too 
extensive to admit of a convenient government. It 
asked for a division of those limits, and for authority 
to establish a State with the following boundaries : 
on the north, a line drawn due west from the mouth 
of Rock River; on the east, the Mississippi River; 
on the south, a line beginning at the 36th degree of 
north latitude, thence in a direct line to the mouth 
of Black River, thence up White River to the parallel 
of 36'' 30', thence with that parallel due west to a 
point from which a due north line will cross the 
Missouri River at the mouth of Wolf River; on the 
west, the said due north line." 



104 Iowa: the First Free State 

The memorial added : 

"To a superficial observer these limits may seem 
extravagant, but attention to the topography of the 
country will show they are necessary. The districts 
of country that are fertile and susceptible of culti- 
vation are small, and separated from each other at 
great distances by immense plains and barren tracts, 
which must for ages remain waste and uninhabited. 
These frontier settlements can only become impor- 
tant and respectable by being united, and one great 
object is the formation of an effectual barrier against 
Indian incursions, by pushing a strong settlement 
on the Little Platte to the west, and on the Des 
Moines to the north." 

Soon after the presentation of this memorial 
to Congress, a bill to authorize the people of 
Missouri Territory to form a State government 
was introduced in the House of Representatives 
on the thirteenth of February, 1 8 19, when a 
motion was made by James Tallmadge, Jr., of 
New York, to prohibit the further introduction 
of slaves into the proposed State, and to give 
freedom to all children of slaves born there after 
the admission of the State into the Union, at the 
age of twenty-five years. Heated debates fol- 



in the Louisiana Purchase 105 

lowed for several days. A few quotations from 
some of the speakers will show their different 
views. It should be remembered that the 
importation of slaves into the United States, 
though prohibited in 1808, was still carried on. 
John W. Taylor, of New York, said : 

" Cast your eye on that majestic river which gives 
name to the Territory for the admission of which 
into the Union we are to provide. Contemplate 
the States hereafter to unfold their banners over this 
portion of America. Our votes will determine 
whether the high destinies of this region shall be 
fulfilled, or whether we shall defeat them by per- 
mitting slavery. I am not willing to declare the 
country west of the Mississippi a market for human 
flesh. In vain you enact laws against the importa- 
tion of slaves, if you create an additional demand 
for them by opening the western world to their 
employment. While a negro man is bought in 
Africa for a few gewgaws, and sold in New Orleans 
for twelve or fifteen hundred dollars, unprincipled 
men will prosecute the traffic." 

Thomas W. Cobb, of Georgia, spoke to the 
effect that gentlemen could not suppose that the 
Southern States would submit to a measure 



io6 Iowa: the First Free State 

which would exclude them from all enjoyment 
of the region that belonged equally to them as 
to the Northern States. He ventured to assure 
them that they would not. The people of the 
slaveholding States knew their rights, and would 
insist upon them. He might subject himself 
to ridicule for attempting a spirit of prophecy, 
but (turning to the author of the motion) he 
warned the advocates of this measure against 
the certain effects it must produce, destructive 
of the peace and harmony of the Union. They 
had kindled a fire which the waters of ocean 
could not put out, which only seas of blood 
could extinguish. 

James Tallmadge said : 

" Language of this sort has no effect on me. If a 
dissolution of the Union must take place, let it be so. 
If civil war, which gentlemen so much threaten, must 
come, I can only say, let it come ! My hold on life 
is probably as frail as that of any man who hears me, 
but while that hold lasts, it shall be devoted to the 
service of my country, to the freedom of man. The 
violence which gentlemen have resorted to will not 
move my purpose. I have the fortune and the honor 
to stand here as the representative of freemen who 



in the Louisiana Purchase 107 

know their rights, who have the spirit to maintain 
them. As their representative I will proclaim their 
hatred to slavery. Has slavery become a subject of 
so much feeling, of such delicacy, of such danger, 
that it cannot be discussed? Are we to be told of 
the dissolution of the Union, of civil war, and seas 
of blood? And yet with such threatenings, in the 
same breath, gentlemen insist on the encouragement 
of this evil, an evil threatening the civil and religious 
institutions of the country. If its power and its im- 
pending dangers have arrived at such a point that it 
is not safe to discuss it on this floor, what will be the 
result when it is spread through your wide domain? 
Its present aspect, and the violence of its supporters, 
so far from inducing me to yield to its progress, 
prompt me to resist its march. It must now be met, 
and the evil prevented. 

'■* Extend your views over your newly acquired ter- 
ritory, so far surpassing in extent your present limits 
that that country which gave birth to your nation 
hangs but as an appendage to the empire over which 
your Government is called to bear sway. Look down 
the long vista of futurity. See your empire, in ad- 
vantageous situation without a parallel, occupying all 
the valuable part of the continent, inhabited by the 
hardy sons of American freemen, knowing their rights, 
inheriting the will to maintain them, owners of the 



io8 Iowa: the First Free State 

soil on which they Hve, interested in the institutions 
which they labor to defend, with two oceans laving 
their shores, and bearing the commerce of your 
people. Compared to yours, the Governments of 
Europe dwindle into insignificance. 

" But reverse the scene. People this fair domain 
with the slaves of your planters ; spread slavery over 
your empire : you prepare its dissolution ; you turn 
its strength into weakness ; you cherish a canker in 
your breast ; you put poison in your bosom. 

" It has been urged that we should spread the evil 
rather than confine it to its present districts. Since 
we have been engaged in this debate, we have wit- 
nessed an elucidation of this argument, of bettering 
the condition of slaves by spreading them over the 
country. A trafficker in human flesh has passed the 
door of your Capitol on his way to the West, driving 
before him some fifteen victims of his power ; the men 
handcuffed and chained to each other, the women 
and children marching in the rear, under the 
guidance of the driver's whip. Such has been the 
scene witnessed from the windows of Congress Hall, 
and viewed by the members who compose the legisla- 
tive councils of republican America ! This reasoning 
is fallacious. While slavery is permitted, the market 
will be supplied. Our extensive coast, and its con- 
tiguity to the West Indies, render the introduction 



in the Louisiana Purchase 109 

of slaves easy. Our laws against it are highly penal ; 
and yet it is a well-known fact that about fourteen 
thousand slaves have been brought into our country 
this last year." 

Henry Clay, of Kentucky, Speaker of the 
House, took part in the debate. He denied 
the right to prohibit the carrying of slaves into 
Missouri, as in violation of the second section 
of the fourth article of the Constitution, which 
entitles "the citizens of each State to all the 
privileges and immunities of citizens of the 
several States." He charged the advocates of 
prohibition with being under the influence of 
negrophobia, proscribing the people of the 
South, cooping them up, preventing the ex- 
tension of their population and wealth. He 
further said that the spread of slavery would 
cure or paUiate its evils, that prohibition would 
be cruel to the slaves, leaving them to destruc- 
tion in the old worn-out States, instead of allow- 
ing them to share in the fat plenty of the new 
West. 

In the Senate, Rufus King of New York 
maintained the constitutional right and the 



no Iowa: the First Free State 

duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in Mis- 
souri. Having been a member of the con- 
vention which formed the Constitution, his 
words carried force and weight. Though 
spoken without heat or passion, they were '' the 
signal guns," said Thomas H. Benton, of the 
controversy which soon agitated the nation. 
Mr. King's speeches, delivered February 27, 
18 19, were not reported. He spoke from notes. 
By request, he published the substance of them 
in the following November. *' This publica- 
tion," said John Quincy Adams at the time, 
'' has largely contributed to kindle the flames 
now raging through the Union." " We never 
have observed so great a body of argument 
pressed into a smaller space," said Niles' 
" Weekly Register." A brief resume may show 
the course of Mr. King's argument : 

The Territory of Missouri belongs to the United 
States, and is subject to the government prescribed 
by Congress. The clause of the Constitution which 
gives this power to Congress is comprehensive and 
unambiguous. 

The question respecting slavery in the old Thirteen 
States was decided before the adoption of the Consti- 




Black Hawk 



in the Louisiana Purchase 1 1 1 

tution, which grants to Congress no power to change 
what had been settled. The slave States, therefore, 
are free to continue or abolish slavery. Since 1808 
Congress has had power to prohibit, and has pro- 
hibited, the importation of slaves into the old States, 
and at all times has had power to prohibit such im- 
portation into a new State or Territory. Congress 
may, therefore, make it the condition of a new State 
that slavery shall be prohibited therein. This con- 
struction of the Constitution is confirmed by the past 
decisions of Congress. 

If Congress possesses the power to exclude slavery 
from Missouri, it remains to be shown that they 
ought to do so. The motives for the admission of 
new States into the Union are the extension of our 
principles of free government, the equalizing public 
burdens, and the consolidation of the nation. Unless 
these objects are promoted by the admission of new 
States no such admission can be justified. 

The existence of slavery impairs industry and the 
power of a people. When the manual labor of a 
country is performed by slaves, labor dishonors the 
hands of freemen. If Missouri is permitted to es- 
tablish slavery, the security of the Union may be 
endangered, and other States that may be formed 
west of the Mississippi will extend slavery instead of 
freedom over that boundless region. 



112 Iowa: the First Free State 

To secure to owners of property in slaves greater 
political power than is allowed to owners of other 
property seems contrary to our theory of poUtical 
rights. In a slave State five free persons have as 
much povj'er in the choice of representatives to Con- 
gress and in the appointment of presidential electors 
as seven free persons in a State in which slavery does 
not exist. This disproportionate power and influence 
was conceded to the slave States, though with reluc- 
tance, as a necessary sacrifice to the establishment 
of the Constitution. It was a settlement between 
the Thirteen States, and faith and honor stand pledged 
not to disturb it; but the considerations which led 
to it, the common share of those States in the war of 
the Revolution, and in the effort "to form a more 
perfect union," were peculiar to that time and to 
those States, and not applicable to new States. Its 
extension would be unjust and odious, and the free 
States cannot be expected to consent to it, and we 
may hope the other States are too magnanimous to 
insist on it. 

Freedom and slavery are the parties which this 
day stand before the Senate, and upon its decision 
the empire of the one or the other will be established. 
If slavery be permitted in Missouri, what hope can be 
entertained that it will ever be prohibited in any of 
the new States that may be formed west of the Mis- 



in the Louisiana Purchase 1 1 3 

sissippi ? If we can pass our original boundary with- 
out affecting the principles of our free governments, 
this can only be accomplished by vigilant attention to 
plant, cherish, and sustain the principles of liberty in 
the States that may be formed beyond our ancient 
limits. 

A bill to authorize the people of Missouri to 
form a State government, and prohibiting the 
further introduction of slavery, passed the 
House of Representatives by a vote of 97 to 
56, on the sixteenth of February. But in the 
Senate, after a long and animated debate in 
which Rufus King spoke as above, the clause 
prohibiting the further introduction of slavery 
was struck oiit by a vote of 22 to 16, on the 
twenty-seventh of February. After a conference 
of the two Houses, the Senate refused to concur 
in the prohibition of slavery, and the bill fell 
to the ground. 

At the same time a territorial government 
was established for the part of Missouri Terri- 
tory south of 36° 30'. It was named Arkansaw. 
A motion to prohibit slavery in it failed in the 
House, 86 yeas, 90 nays, February 19; and in 

8 



114 Iowa: the First Free State 

the Senate, 14 yeas, 19 nays, March i. The 
Fifteenth Congress expired March 3, 18 19. 

For many months the whole country was 
agitated with the question. The Northern 
people called for a restriction upon the exten- 
sion of slavery west of the Mississippi. Penn- 
sylvania declared in its legislature " that it was 
the boast of the people of that State that they 
were foremost in removing the pollution of 
slavery from amongst themselves, and that 
veneration for the founders of the Republic, 
and a regard for posterity, demanded a limit 
to the range of the evil." The legislatures of 
New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio, and 
Indiana joined in declarations to the same 
effect. Martin Van Buren was a member of the 
State Senate of New York, and voted to 
instruct the members of Congress from that 
State to oppose the admission into the Union of 
any State from beyond the original boundary 
of the United States, without the prohibition 
of slavery therein. With prophetic foresight 
Rufus King said, " the entrance of slavery 
beyond the Mississippi will operate to the dis 



^ in the Louisiana Purchase 1 1 5 

advantage and humiliation of the States where 
slavery is prohibited." * 

The Southern States were equally positive on 
the other side. They claimed the right, under 
the Constitution, and under the treaty with 
France, to carry slaves into Missouri. Persons 
who had taken slaves there held public meet- 
ings in the Territory, and denied the right of 
Congress to interfere in the matter. 

The question was resumed in the Sixteenth 
Congress. Many speeches were made. In the 
House, Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina, 
who had been a member, like Rufus King, of 
the convention which framed the Constitution 
of the United States, defended the right to 
hold slaves, and spoke of the benefits of slavery. 
He commented on the Ordinance of 1787 as 
" chargeable with usurpation," and said that 
"the great body of slaves are happier in their 
present condition than they could be in any 
other, and the men who would attempt to give 
them freedom would be their enemies." By 93 
to 84 votes the House passed a bill in which 

* Rufus King. *' Life and Correspondence," vi., 237. 



ii6 Iowa: the First Free State 

the further introduction of slavery into Missouri 
was prohibited. 

In the Senate, William Pinkney, of Maryland, 
made a speech of three hours in opposition to 
Rufus King's speech in the previous Congress, 
He spoke of the '' restriction of slavery as 
dooming Missouri to inferiority, placing shackles 
upon her, putting the iron collar of servitude 
about her neck, instead of the civic crown of 
freedom upon her brows." The part of the 
speech which was reported occupies sixteen 
double-column pages in the " Abridgment of 
Debates in Congress," vi., 435-450. Thomas H. 
Benton said : " The speech was the master 
effort of Mr. Pinkney's life, the most gorgeous 
ever delivered in the Senate, dazzling and over- 
powering." It concluded with the hope that 
the matter might be disposed of in a manner 
satisfactory to all by a prohibition of slavery in 
the territory north and west of Missouri. This 
was on the fifteenth of February, 1820. The 
following day Rufus King spoke for more than 
an hour in support of the House bill. He 
said: 



in the Louisiana Purchase 1 1 7 

"The principles set forth in the preamble to the 
Constitution, which proclaim the purpose of its 
establishment, are dishonored and violated in the 
extension of slavery into territory beyond the ancient 
limits of the United States. It seemed strange that 
the men of the free States were blind to this violation 
of the Constitution." 

An amendment to the House bill was now 
proposed by Jesse B. Thomas, of Illinois, to 
prohibit slavery north and west of Missouri, as 
Mr. Pinkney had suggested. This was adopted 
the next day by 34 to 10 votes, Mr. King and 
Mr. Pinkney voting for it. The same day, upon 
the question of the admission of Missouri with 
slavery as part of a compromise, Mr. King 
and seventeen other Northern senators voted 
against such a compromise, as did Nathaniel 
Macon, of North Carolina, and William Smith, 
of South Carolina, but for the opposite reason 
that the compromise prohibited slavery north 
and west of Missouri. The two senators 
from lUinois, one from New Hampshire and 
one from Rhode Island, joined with twenty 
Southern senators in supporting both parts 



1 1 8 Iowa : the First Free State 

of the compromise, the vote being 24 yeas, 20 
nays. 

After having mixed up Maine with Missouri in 
the matter, proposing to condition the admission 
of Maine upon the admission of Missouri, making 
the latter a rider to the former, and after renewed 
threats if slavery in Missouri should be prohib- 
ited, and after a conference of the two Houses, 
the House of Representatives yielded. They 
struck out the prohibition of slavery in Missouri 
by a vote of 90 to 87, and adopted by a vote of 
136 to 42 the compromise made in the Senate. 

It was on the second of March, 1820, that free- 
dom gave way, and slavery gained a political 
ascendancy which it held for forty years. The 
compromise was conceived in the interest of 
slavery, but could not have been carried with- 
out votes from the free States. In the House 
of Representatives, only five of the forty-two 
votes against it were from the North. " The 
Northern members embraced and adopted it," 
said Mr. Calhoun. John Randolph called it 
" a dirty bargain," and its Northern supporters 
who did not stand by their convictions, 



in the Louisiana Purchase 119 

** dough-faces." President Monroe approved 
the Compromise Bill, first taking the opinion 
of his cabinet, in which John Quincy Adams, 
Secretary of State, John C. Calhoun, * Secre- 
tary of War, and the others all concurred, that 
Congress had a right to prohibit slavery in 
territory of the United States. Mr. Adams 
said that he favored the compromise " from 
extreme unwillingness to put the Union at 
hazard." That was the overshadowing con- 
sideration with the Northern members of Con- 
gress who voted for it, and with the Northern 
people who acquiesced in it as closing an angry 
controversy, averting a civil war. In letters to 
friends Rufus King gave his views : 

" The compromise is deceptive. The slave States, 
with recruits from senators and representatives of the 
free States, have carried the question. They have 
triumphed over us. We have been shamefully de- 
serted in the House of Representatives. The result 
will be fatal. The pretended concession is of no 
value, a mere tub to the whale ; for it is revocable at 

* Eighteen years later, Mr. Calhoun said in Congress that 
'\he had entirely changed his opinion." — " Thirty Years in the 
United States Senate." Benton, ii., 136. 



I20 Iowa: the First Free State 

pleasure, and has been provided as an apology to 
members of the free States who have assisted in put- 
ting us under a government of the privileged order, 
henceforth to be our masters. Well, therefore, may 
we consider ourselves conquered, as is indeed our 
condition. 

** One State may be formed on the Mississippi that 
may be a free State ; the country further west is a 
prairie resembling the steppes of Tartary, without 
wood or water except on the great river and its 
branches. Not only may the exclusion of slavery be 
repealed, but it is avowed that if the country should 
be settled, the restriction on the territory will not 
apply, and is not intended to apply to any new State, 
but that such State may establish slavery if it shall 
think proper to do so." * 

Similar views to those of Rufus King were 
taken more than thirty years afterwards by 
Stephen A. Douglas in breaking down the 
Missouri Compromise, and eighty years after- 
wards by the President of the College at Prince- 
ton, New Jersey, who says: 

" With Missouri a slave State, slavery, which was 
of the fixed and accepted order of society in the 

* Rufus King. " Life and Correspondence," vi., 287-296. 




RuFus King 



in the Louisiana Purchase 121 

South, and the foundation of her aristocratic system, 
got a new hold, and enjoyed a new reason for 
being."* 

Congress refused to the State of Missouri 
the boundary line drawn west from the mouth 
of Rock River, and reduced it to the parallel 
which passes from the western border of the 
State through the rapids of the River Des 
Moines to the River Des Moines, thence down 
said river to the Mississippi. Senator WiUiam 
A. Trimble, of Ohio, speaking from personal 
knowledge of the valley of the Des Moines, 
advocated giving that fine valley to the State 
which should hereafter be formed north of Mis- 
souri. Congress also reduced the western 
boundary of the State from a line drawn at the 
mouth of Wolf River to one passing through 
the mouth of Kansas River. 

Pursuant to an enabling act of Congress, rep- 
resentatives of the people of Missouri met in a 
convention and formed a State Constitution. 
Henry Dodge, of St. Genevieve County, was a 

* Woodrow Wilson. " A History of the American People," 
ii., 2<;2. 



122 Iowa: the First Free State 

member of the convention. The Constitution 
made it the duty of the legislature to " pass 
laws to prevent free negroes and mulattoes 
from coming to and settling in the State." In- 
asmuch as in some States persons of color were 
citizens, this contravened the Constitution of 
the United States, which " entitles citizens of 
each State to all the privileges and immunities 
of citizens in the several States." Conse- 
quently, when application was made for the 
admission of Missouri into the Union, this 
contravention of the Constitution of the United 
States stood in the way. After heated debates 
in both Houses, Henry Clay, Speaker of the 
House, by what was deemed a master stroke of 
policy, brought on an arrangement that con- 
ditioned the admission of Missouri into the 
Union upon the declaration of a solemn public 
act by its legislature, that no law shall ever be 
passed by which any citizen of any State shall 
be excluded from the privileges and immunities 
to which he is entitled under the Constitution 
of the United States. The legislature did as 
required, and transmitted a copy of the solemn 



in the Louisiana Purchase 123 

public act to President Monroe; whereupon, 
pursuant to a law made for the case, he an- 
nounced by proclamation the admission of the 
State into the Union, August 12, 1821. 

Thirty-three years later, March 3, 1854, 
Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, in the Senate 
of the United States, called that action of the 
legislature of Missouri " a burlesque, the richest 
specimen of irony and sarcasm ever incorpo- 
rated into a solemn public act." Sixty-seven 
years later, a Missouri historian called it a 
"farce" and "absurdity" done with "com- 
mendable alacrity." * 

After an existence of eight years the form of 
government called the Territory of Missouri 
gave way, one part to the Arkansaw Territory, 
one part to the State of Missouri, the re- 
mainder, the vast region north to the British 
line and west to the Rocky Mountains, lapsing 
into its aboriginal condition. 

* Lucien Cam " Missouri a Bone of Contention," p. 15b. 



124 Iowa: the First Free State 



IX 

IN UNORGANIZED TERRITORY OF THE 
UNITED STATES 

August io, 1821 — June 28, 1834 

UPON the admission of the State of Mis- 
souri into the Union, the country north 
of that State, and the residue of the Louisiana 
Purchase north of 36° 30', were left without law 
or government, except the prohibition of slavery 
and laws to regulate the Indian trade. Traders 
and army officers, however, as occasion served, 
still carried slaves into the territory. In consid- 
eration of one thousand dollars paid to the Sacs 
and Foxes, September 3, 1822, those tribes re- 
leased the United States from the obligation of 
the treaty of 1804, to establish a trading-house 
or factory for their benefit. Thus the govern- 
ment plan for trade with the Indians by its own 
agents, which Jefferson had sedulously carried 
out, came to an end. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 125 

The soil of Iowa continued in the occupancy 
of a few tribes, who Hved in villages on banks 
of rivers, and often fell foul of one another as 
they roamed over the prairies in hunting expe- 
ditions. There were about six thousand Sacs 
and Foxes with a thousand lowas in eastern 
and central Iowa, one or two thousand Otoes, 
Pawnees, and Omahas in western Iowa, and 
roving bands of Sioux in northern Iowa, num- 
bering a thousand more, — in all about ten thou- 
sand souls. War was their native element, the 
ideal of savage life. A skulking band of Sacs 
under Pash-e-pa-ho and Black Hawk, in May, 
1823, for some real or imagined wrong, sur- 
prised and nearly exterminated an Iowa village 
upon the Des Moines River at lowaville, while 
the braves of the village were at their sports 
and games without arms. 

During this period the American Fur Com- 
pany monopolized the Indian trade and made 
exorbitant profits. Regardless of the laws pro- 
hibiting the introduction of intoxicating Hquor 
into the Indian country, they smuggled it in 
under artful devices. Congress fostered the 



126 Iowa: the First Free State 

Santa Fe trade and the rich fur trade of the 
upper Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, but 
made no provision for the prairie country be- 
tween tlie Mississippi and the Missouri. Presi- 
dent Monroe in his message, December, iS-:4, 
suggested the removal to this region o( the 
northern Indians who were east of the Missis- 
sippi, with schools for their industrial educa- 
tion, as had been recommended by the Secretary 
of War, John C. Calhoun. President Jackson 
made a similar recommendation in his mes- 
sage to Congress in 1S29. Had these sugges- 
tions been carried out, what is now Iowa might 
have been for Northern Indians what the Indian 
territory has been for the Southern Indians. 
Put the Indians who held this region scouted 
civilization and an industrial life ; and the 
Winnebagoes and the Pottawattamies, who 
were removed into the region at the close of 
this period, profited little b\' their removal. 
The condition of children and old people among 
the Indians was extremely pitiable, as reported 
b>' the commissioner of Indian atlairs, William 
Clark, in 1S26: 



in the Louisiana Purchase i 27 

" During several seasons in every year they are 
distressed by famine in which many die, and the 
living child is often buried with the dead mother. 
They have neither hogs nor cows, and do not want 
them, because they would eat up their little patches 
of corn which are without fences, and because, as 
the whole nation go out to hunt twice a year, they 
want nothing but horses and dogs which accompany 
them. In these expeditions the aged and infirm, 
when unable to keep up, are frequently left to die." 

Had the different tribes lived at peace among 
themselves and with the United States, they 
might have remained where they were. There 
was at that time no disposition to acquire their 
lands on the part of the United States. Such a 
disposition was expressly disclaimed by the 
agents of the Government, Lewis Cass and Wil- 
liam Clark. Large tracts of land east of the 
Mississippi were still unsettled. There seemed 
no necessity, as there was no demand, for more 
land to be thrown open to the white people. 
At the same time the State of Missouri desired 
the removal of the Sac and Fox and Iowa 
Indians from the lands north of the Missouri 
River which they held or claimed in that State. 



128 Iowa: the First Free State 

A deputation of the chiefs and head men of 
those tribes was taken to Washington, D. C, in 
1824, and treaties were made with them for the 
cession of those lands to the United States. 
The famous Sac chiefs, Pash-e-pa-ho and Keo- 
kuk, the Fox chief, Tama, and the Iowa chief, 
Mahaska, were in the deputation. Flying Pig- 
eon, one of Mahaska's wives, accompanied him. 
He had refused her request to go, but she fol- 
lowed him down the Des Moines River, and 
with tomahawk in hand claimed her right to 
keep him company. He yielded to her impor- 
tunity. A woman of handsome presence and 
noble bearing, she was feted at the White 
House as an Iowa princess, and her portrait 
painted for the Indian Gallery. After the ces- 
sion took effect, January i, 1826, those tribes 
were confined to their lands in what is now 
Iowa, save that Black Hawk and his band, who 
were known as the Sacs of Rock River, re- 
mained east of the Mississippi. The treaty with 
the Sacs and Foxes also provided that "the 
small tract of land lying between the rivers Des 
Moines and Mississippi, and the section of the 




Mahaska 



in the Louisiana Purchase 129 

State boundary line between the Mississippi 
and the Des Moines, is intended for the use of 
the half-breeds belonging to those nations " ; — ■ 
according to the sentiment in the Indian mind 
that care and protection were due to any who 
inherited their blood. 

In those years the Sacs and Foxes kept up 
their hereditary war with the Sioux. In order 
to promote peace and establish boundaries 
between them as well as between all the 
tribes from the lakes to the Missouri River, 
invitations were sent out to the chiefs and 
head men of those tribes to assemble at 
Prairie du Chien in the summer of 1825, and 
in a spirit of mutual concihation accomplish 
those objects. It was a great assemblage. Eva 
Emery Dye describes it in **The Conquest — 
the True Story of Lewis and Clark," with 
graphic pen : 

" Prairie du Chien was alive with excitement. 
Governor Cass of Michigan was already there. ' Not 
only the village, but the entire banks of the river for 
miles above and below were covered with high- 
pointed buffalo tents. Horses browsed upon the 

9 



130 Iowa: the First Free State 

bluffs in Arabian abandon. Below, tall and warlike, 
Chippewas and Winnebagoes, from Superior and the 
valley of St. Croix, jostled Menomonees, Pottawat- 
tamies, and Ottawas from Lake Michigan and Green 
Bay. 

" ' Whoop-oh-hoo-oh ! ' " 

" Major Taliferro, from the Falls of St. Anthony, 
made the grand entry with his Sioux and Chippewas, 
four hundred strong, drums beating, flags flying. 
Taliferro was very popular with the Sioux, — even 
the squaws said he was ^Weechashtah Washtay,^ — 
a handsome man. 

" Over from Sault Ste. Marie, the learned agent 
Schoolcraft had brought one hundred and fifty Chip- 
pewas. . . . 

" Keokuk, the Watchful Fox, with his Sacs and 
lowas,* was the last to arrive. Leagued against the 
Sioux, they had camped on an island below to paint 
and dress, and came up the Mississippi attired in 
full war costume singing their battle- song. It was 
a thrilling sight when they came upon the scene 
with spears and battle -lances, . . . casting bitter 
glances at their ancient foe, the Sioux. Nearly nude, 
with feather war-flags flying, and beating tambou- 
rines, the Sacs landed in compact ranks, breathing 

* Foxes. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 131 

defiance. From his earliest youth Keokuk had 
fought the Sioux. 

" ' Bold, martial, . . . Keokuk landed, majestic 
and frowning,' said Schoolcraft, ^ . . and shook 
his war lance at the Sioux.' 

" At the signal of a gun, every day at ten o'clock, 
the chiefs assembled. 

" ' Children,' said Governor Clark to the assem- 
bled savages, ^ your Great Father has not sent us 
here to ask anything from you — we want nothing — 
not the smallest piece of your land. We have come 
a great way to meet for your own good. Your Great 
Father the President has been informed that war 
is carried on among his red children, — the Sacs, 
Foxes, and Chippewas on one side, and the Sioux 
on the other, — and that the wars of some of you 
began before any of you were born.' 

*' ' Heigh ! heigh ! ' broke forth the silent smokers. 
' Heigh ! heigh ! ' exclaimed the warriors. * Heigh ! 
heigh ! ' echoed the vast and impatient concourse 
around the council. 

•''Your father thinks there is no cause for con- 
tinuation of war between you. There is land enough 
for you to live and hunt on and animals enough. 
Why, instead of peaceably following the game and 
providing for your famiHes, do you send out war 
parties to destroy each other? The Great Spirit 



132 Iowa: the First Free State 

made you all of one color and placed you upon 
the land. You ought to live in peace as brothers of 
one great family. Your Great Father has heard of 
your war songs and war parties — they do not please 
him. He desires that his red children should bury 
the tomahawk.' 

"'Heigh! heigh!' 

" ' Children ! look around you. See the result of 
wars between nations who were once powerful and 
are now reduced to a few wandering families. You 
have examples enough before you. 

" *■ Children, your wars have resulted from your 
having no definite boundaries. You do not know 
what belongs to you, and your people follow the 
game into lands claimed by other tribes.' 
. " ' Heigh ! heigh ! ' 

"'Children, you have all assembled under your 
Father's flag. You are under his protection. Blood 
must not be spilt here. Whoever injures one of you 
injures us, and we will punish him as we would pun- 
ish one of our own people.' 

" ' Heigh ! heigh ! heigh ! ' cried all the Indians. 

" ' Children,' said General Cass, * your Great Fa- 
ther does not want your land. He wants to establish 
boundaries and peace among you. Your Great Fa- 
ther has strong limbs and a piercing eye, and an 
arm that extends from the sea to Red River. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 133 

"' Children, you are hungry. We will adjourn for 
two hours.' 

" ' Heigh ! heigh ! heigh-h ! ' rolled the chorus 
across the Prairie. 

**As to an army, rations were distributed, beef, 
bread, corn, salt, sugar, tobacco. Each ate, ate, 
ate, — till not a scrap was left to feed a humming- 
bird. 

" Revered of his people, Wabasha and his pipe- 
bearers were the observed of all. 

'* * I never yet was present at so great a council 
as this,' said Wabasha. Three thousand were at 
Prairie du Chien. 

"The Sioux? Far from the northwest they said 
their fathers came, — the Tartar cheek was theirs. 
Wabasha and his chiefs alone had the Caucasian 
countenance. 

"Three mighty brothers ruled the Sioux in the 
days of Pontiac, — Wabasha, Red Wing, and Little 
Crow. Their sons, Wabasha, Red Wing, and Little 
Crow, ruled still. 

"'Boundaries?' they knew not the meaning of 
the word. Restless, anxious, sharp-featured Little 
Crow fixed his piercing hazel eye upon the Red 
Head, — * 

" ' Taku-wakan ! — that is incomprehensible ! * 
* Name given to Governor Clark by the Indians. 



134 Iowa: the First Free State 

*' ' Heigh ! What does this mean ? ' exclaimed 
the Chippewas. 

" * We are all one people/ sagely observed Ma- 
haska, the Iowa. * My father, I claim no lands in 
particular.' 

*"I never yet heard that any one had any 
exclusive right to the soil,* said Chambler, the 
Ottawa. 

" * I have a tract of country. It is where I was 
born and now live/ said Red Bird, the Winnebago. 
* But the Foxes claim it and the Sacs, the Menom- 
onees and Omahas.* We use it in common.' 

*' Red Bird was a handsome Indian, dressed Yank- 
ton fashion in white unsoiled deerskin and scarlet, 
and glove-fitting moccasins, — the dandy of his tribe. 

*' The debate grew animated. * Our tract is so 
small,' cried the Menomonees, ' that we cannot turn 
around without touching our neighbors.' Then every 
Indian began to describe his boundaries, crossing 
and recrossing each other. 

*' ' These are the causes of all your troubles,' said 
Clark. ' It is better for each of you to give up some 
disputed claim than to be fighting for ever about it.* 

" That night the parties two by two discussed their 
lines, the first step towards civilization. They drew 
maps on the ground, — *my hunting ground,' and 

*■ Ottawas. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 135 

* mine,' and * mine.' After days of study, the bound- 
ary rivers were acknowledged, the belt of wampum 
was passed, and the pipe of peace. 

"Wabasha, acknowledged by every chief to be 
first of the Seven Fires of the Sioux, was treated by 
all with marked distinction and deference. And yet 
Wabasha, dignified and of superior understanding, 
when asked, 'Wabasha, what arrangement did you 
make with the Foxes about boundaries?' replied, 
' I never made any arrangement about the line. The 
only arrangement I made was about peace ! ' 

<* * When I heard the voice of my Great Father,' 
said Mongazid, the Loon's Foot, from Fond du Lac, 

* when I heard the voice of my Father coming up 
the Mississippi, calling to this treaty, it seemed as a 
murmuring wind. I got up from my mat where I 
sat musing, and hastened to obey. My pathway has 
been clear and bright. Truly it is a pleasant sky 
above our heads this day. There is not a cloud to 
darken it. I hear nothing but pleasant words. The 
raven is not waiting for his prey. I hear no eagle 
cry, "Come, let us go, — the feast is ready, — the 
Indian has killed his brother." ' 

" Shingaba Wassin of Sault Ste. Marie, head chief 
of the Chippewas, had fought with Britain in the 
War of 181 2, and lost a brother at the battle of the 
Thames. He and a hundred other chiefs with their 



136 Iowa: the First Free State 

pipe-bearers signed the treaty. Everybody signed. 
And all sang, even the girls, the VVitcheannas of the 
Sioux. 

" ' We have buried our bad thoughts in the ashes 
of the pipe/ said Little Crow. 

" * I always had good counsel from Governor 
Clark,' observed Red Wing. 

"*You put this medal on my neck in 1812/ said 
Decorah, the Winnebago, * and when I returned I 
gave good advice to the young men of our village.' 

*' After a fierce controversy and the rankling of a 
hundred wrongs, the warring tribes laid down their 
lances and buried the tomahawk. Sacs and Sioux 
shook hands ; the dividing lines were fixed ; all the 
chiefs signed, and the tribes were at peace." .... 

" ' Pray God it may last,' said Clark, as his boat 
went away homeward along with the Sacs down the 
Mississippi." * 

To speak only of boundaries between tribes 
belonging to this history — the Upper Iowa 
River from its mouth to the source of its left 
fork, thence crossing the Red Cedar in a direct 
line to the upper fork of the Des Moines, 
thence in a direct line to the lower fork of the 

* " The Conquest," by Eva Emery Dye, pp. 410-414. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 137 

Big Sioux River, and down that river to the 
Missouri, was made the boundary line between 
the Sioux and the Sacs and Foxes. The claim 
of the lowas to a portion of the country with 
the Sacs and Foxes was acknowledged, also 
the claim of the Otoes to a portion of the 
country on the Missouri River. The Sacs and 
Foxes relinquished all claim to land east of 
the Mississippi, and acknowledged the reser- 
vation made for the half-breeds in 1824. It 
was further understood that no tribe should 
hunt in the limits of another without its assent, 
and that in case of difficulties all the tribes 
should interpose their good offices to remove 
them. 

Of the one hundred and thirty-four chiefs 
who signed this treaty, twenty-six were Sioux, 
twelve were Sacs, sixteen were Foxes, and ten 
were lowas. President John Quincy Adams 
in his first annual messag'e, December 6, 1825, 
referred to this treaty as '* an adjustment of 
boundaries, and pledges of permanent peace 
between tribes which had been long waging 
bloody wars against each other." 



138 Iowa: the First Free State 

The Indians, however, could not keep their 
agreement. They had no sense of treaty obli- 
gations. '' To touch the goose-quill " meant 
nothing. The slightest provocation, an imagi- 
nary affront, called for the scalps of their 
enemies. They were soon at war again. The 
Sioux still came down on their old enemies. 

"In May, 1830," says an eye-witness, "I visited 
Prairie du Chien, and was a guest of Joseph Rolette, 
agent of the American Fur Company. One evening 
we were startled by the reports of firearms on the 
Mississippi, succeeded by sounds of Indian drums and 
savage yells. About midnight we were aroused by 
footsteps on the piazza and by knocking on the doors 
and shutters. Mr. Rolette went out to ascertain the 
cause, and was informed that a bloody battle had 
been fought, and the visitors were the victors, and 
called up their trader to obtain spirit-water for a 
celebration. Their wants were supplied. The war- 
riors kept up a horrible pow-wow through the night with 
savage yells. In the morning we heard the partic- 
ulars of the fight, and during the day witnessed a most 
revolting exhibition. 

'^ On the da,y before the battle, some twenty Sioux 
joined by a few Menomonees, encamped on an island 



in the Louisiana Purchase 139 

opposite Prairie du Chien. The Sioux had informa- 
tion that a party from the Fox village at Dubuque were 
to visit Prairie du Chien, and would encamp for the 
night near the mouth of the Wisconsin River. That 
afternoon the Sioux party descended the Mississippi 
and hid in thick bushes near where their victims 
would encamp. Between sunset and dark, the un- 
suspecting Foxes — one old chief, one squaw, a boy 
of fourteen years, and fifteen warriors — came up 
and disembarked. After they had landed and were 
carrying their effects on shore, leaving their guns and 
war-clubs in the canoes, the party in ambush sprang 
to their feet and fired upon the Foxes. All were 
slain, except the boy, who escaped down the river. 
Hands, feet, ears, and scalps were cut off, and the 
heart of the chief cut from his breast, as trophies. 
" The next day the victors, accompanied by a few 
squaws, paraded the streets with drum and rattle, 
displaying on poles the scalps and dismembered 
fragments of their victims. The whole party was 
painted in various colors, wore feathers, and carried 
their tomahawks, war-clubs, and scalping knives. 
Stopping in front of the principal houses in the 
village, they danced the war-dance and the scalp- 
dance with their characteristic yells. The mangled 
limbs were still fresh and bleeding; one old squaw 
carried on a pole the hand with a strip of skin from 



140 Iowa: the First Free State 

the arm of a murdered man, she keepmg up the 
death-song and joining in the scalp-dance. After 
this exhibition, which lasted two or three hours, the 
warriors went to a small mound, about two hundred 
yards from Mr. Rolette's residence, made a fire, 
roasted the heart of the old chief, and divided it into 
small pieces among the warriors, who devoured it. 

"This occurred in a town of six hundred inhabit- 
ants, under the walls of the United States garrison, 
within musket shot of the fort. Neither civil nor 
military authority made any effort to prevent it. In 
the afternoon the Sioux embarked in their canoes to 
return to their village."* 

Not long afterwards a war party was formed 
in the Fox village to avenge the murder. Wail- 
ings and lamentations for the dead gave way to 
savage yells. With blackened faces, chanting 
the death-song, the party entered their canoes. 
Arriving at the bluffs opposite Prairie du Chien 
they discovered a Menomonee encampment 
spread out on the ground, nearly under the 
guns of Fort Crawford. The Foxes lay in 
ambush till midnight, when, girded with toma- 
hawk and scalping knife, they swam the river 

* Wis. Hist. Coll., ix., 324-326. 




Keokuk 



in the Louisiana Purchase 141 

and stole upon the foe. In the first lodge an 
old chief sat by a smouldering fire, smoking his 
pipe in sleepy silence. They despatched him 
without making a disturbance, and pursued 
their bloody work from lodge to lodge, until the 
whole encampment, with the women and chil- 
dren, met the same fate. Then with a yell of 
satisfaction and revenge they took to the canoes 
of their victims, bearing aloft the trophies of 
victory. Upon reaching their village, they held 
their orgies and danced the scalp-dance. But 
fearing a swift retaliation, they concluded to 
abandon their village, and seek a safer place 
among other bands of their tribe, and near the 
Sacs. They settled where the city of Davenport 
now stands. Eye-witnesses reported seeing them 
as they came down past Rock Island, their 
canoes lashed side by side, the heads and scalps 
of their enemies set upon poles. They landed 
with shouts of triumph, singing war-songs, dis- 
playing the scalps and ghastly faces of the slain. 
The new village was called Morgan, after their 
chief, a half-breed of Scotch and Fox blood. * 

* " Annals of Iowa," 1863. pp. 35, 36. 



142 Iowa: the First Free State 

Soon after the Foxes had deserted their vil- 
lage at Dubuque, adventurers from Galena, 
Illinois, went over there to explore the mines 
and make claims. Lucius H. Langworthy 
says : 

"We crossed the Mississippi, June, 1830, swim- 
ming our horses by the side of a canoe. A large 
village was at the mouth of Catfish Creek, solitary, 
deserted. About seventy buildings constructed with 
poles and bark remained. The council-house con- 
tained furnaces in which kettles had been placed to 
prepare feasts ; but the fires had gone out. On 
the inner surface of the bark were paintings, done 
with considerable skill, representing the buffalo, elk, 
bear, and other animals, also wild sports on the 
prairie, and feats of warriors in bloody fray, — a rude 
record of national history. Could the place have 
been preserved, it would have been an interesting 
relic, but it was burned down by vandal hands in the 
summer. 



»» * 



While the adventurers were mining and work- 
ing some valuable lodes, Captain Zachary Tay- 
lor, United States Army, came down from 

* L. H. Langworthy. Lecture before the Dubuque Lit- 
erary Institute, Dec. 18, 1854. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 143 

Fort Crawford and ordered them off, as the 
country belonged to the Indians. The miners 
demurred. They said : " The country is vacant, 
and we will stay." The captain replied, *' We 
will see about that." Returning to Prairie du 
Chien, he sent down a detachment of troops to 
remove the intruders, and they left. Where- 
upon some of the Foxes, finding that they would 
be protected by United States troops, returned 
to their village, and made a large profit from the 
mines which the men from Galena had opened. 
Some years earlier, several bands of the Sacs 
and Foxes, pursuant to the treaty of 1804, had 
removed from the east side of the Mississippi to 
the west side. Keokuk, Wapello, and Poweshiek 
had planted villages upon or near the Iowa 
River. Tama had moved from Henderson Creek, 
Illinois, to Flint Creek nearly opposite. But 
Black Hawk, though requested by United States 
agents, refused to leave. He said, *' My reason 
teaches me that land cannot be sold. Nothing 
can be sold but such things as can be carried 
away." In 1829 and 1830 President Jackson 
ordered the removal of the Indians from the 



144 Iowa: the First Free State 

lands ceded in 1804. The United States had 
surveyed and sold most of those lands. Part of 
them were " bounty lands " to soldiers of the 
War of 18 12. Purchasers claimed possession. 
Altercations and disputes arose between Black 
Hawk's band and the settlers. There were mis- 
understandings and depredations on both sides. 

The Sacs and Foxes and the Sioux continuing 
at war with each other, a council of their chiefs 
was convened at Prairie du Chien, July, 1830, at 
which it was agreed to erect a barrier between 
them in order to keep them apart. The Sioux 
ceded to the United States a tract twenty miles 
wide north of and adjoining the boundary line 
between them and the Sacs and Foxes fixed in 
1825, and the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the 
United States a similar tract twenty miles wide 
south of that line. These were called " neutral 
grounds." Its southern boundary on the Mis- 
sissippi was indicated by a " Painted Rock," 
marked with figures of wild animals and hiero- 
glyphics, to serve as a notice to all parties. 

At the same council, by the same treaty, the 
Sacs and Foxes, lowas, Missourias, Omahas, 



in the Louisiana Purchase 145 

Otoes, and bands of Sioux, joined in ceding to 
the United States all their right and title to 
what is now western Iowa, that is, west of " the 
high lands between the waters falling into the 
Missouri River and those falling into the Des 
Moines River, and of the dividing ridge between 
the forks of Grand River to the source of Boyer 
River, and thence in a direct line to the upper 
fork of the Des Moines. Thus the Indian title 
to western Iowa was extinguished, and these 
"high lands" and this '* dividing ridge" were 
acknowledged as the western boundary of the 
lands of the Sacs and Foxes and lowas. 

In the spring of 183 1, Felix St. Vrain, the 
United States agent for the Sacs and Foxes, in- 
formed Black Hawk that the Government or- 
dered him to remove to the west bank of the 
Mississippi. Black Hawk assembled his band 
and said to them : 

" Warriors : — Sixty summers or more have gone 

since our fathers sat down here, and our mothers 

erected their lodges on this spot. On these pastures 

our horses have fattened ; our wives and daughters 

have cultivated the corn-fields, and planted beans and 

10 



146 Iowa: the First Free State 

melons and squashes; from these rivers our young 
men have obtained an abundance of fish. Here, 
too, you have been protected from your old enemy, 
the Sioux, by the mighty Mississippi. And here are 
the bones of our warriors and chiefs and orators. 

"But alas ! what do I hear? The birds that have 
long gladdened these groves with their melody now 
sing a melancholy song ! They say, * The red man 
must leave his home, to make room for the white 
man.' The Long Knives want it for their speculation 
and greed. They want to live in our houses, plant 
corn in our fields, and plough up our graves ! They 
want to fatten their hogs on our dead, not yet 
mouldered in their graves ! We are ordered to re- 
move to the west bank of the Mississippi ; there to 
erect other houses, and open new fields, of which 
we shall soon be robbed again by these pale-faces ! 
They tell us that our great father, the chief of the 
Long Knives, has commanded us, his red children, to 
give this, our greatest town, our greatest graveyard, 
and our best home, to his white children ! I do not 
believe it. It cannot be true ; it is impossible that so 
great a Chief should compel us to seek new homes, 
and prepare new corn-fields, and that, too, in a 
country where our women and children will be in 
danger of being murdered by our enemies. No ! 
No ! Our great father, the chief of the Long Knives, 



in the Louisiana Purchase 147 

will never do this. I have heard these silly tales for 
seven winters, that we were to be driven from our 
homes. You know we offered the Long Knives a 
large tract of country abounding with lead on the 
west side of the Mississippi, if they would relinquish 
their claim to this little spot. We will, therefore, re- 
pair our houses which the pale-faced vagabonds have 
torn down and burnt, and we will plant our corn ; and 
if these white intruders annoy us, we will tell them to 
depart. We will offer them no violence, except in 
self-defence. We will not kill their cattle, or destroy 
any of their property, but their scutah wapo (whiskey) 
we will search for, and destroy, throwing it out upon 
the earth, wherever we find it. We have asked per- 
mission of the intruders to cultivate our own fields, 
around which they have erected wooden walls. They 
refuse, and forbid us the privilege of climbing over. 
We will throw down these walls, and, as these pale- 
faces seem unwilling to live in the community with us, 
let them, and not us, depart. The land is ours, not 
theirs. We inherited it from our fathers; we have 
never sold it. If some drunken dogs of our people 
sold lands they did not own, our rights remain. We 
have no chiefs who are authorized to sell our corn- 
fields, our houses, or the bones of our dead. The 
great Chief of the Long Knives, I believe, is too wise 
and good to approve acts of robbery and injustice, 



148 Iowa: the First Free State 

though I have found true the statement of my British 
friends in Canada, that * the Long Knives will always 
claim the land where they are permitted to make a 
track with their foot, or mark a tree.' I will not, 
however, believe that the great Chief, who is pleased 
to call himself our * Father,* will send his warriors 
against his children for no other cause than contend- 
ing to cultivate their own fields, and occupy their own 
houses. No ! I will not believe it, until I see his 
army. Not until then will I forsake the graves of my 
ancestors, and the home of my youth! " * 

Shortly afterwards, General Gaines, with 
United States troops, and Governor Reynolds, 
of Illinois, with a force of militia, came to 
Rock Island and demanded of Black Hawk 
that he remove west of the Mississippi. Black 
Hawk was sullen and spiteful. The interpreter 
said to him, " Your father asks you to take 
a seat." " My father ! " replied the petulant 
chief, repeating what Tecumseh said twenty 
years before to General Harrison, " The sun 
is my father; the earth is my mother; I will 
rest upon her bosom." At this crisis Keokuk 
made an effort to conciliate Black Hawk. He 

* Galland's " Iowa Emigrant." 1840. pp. 24-47. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 149 

advised him to take a reasonable view of the 
situation, and persuaded him once more to 
" touch the goose-quill." Says the United 
States army officer who drew up the '* Articles 
of Agreement" by which Black Hawk engaged 
to remove : 

" There were in attendance about fifty chiefs and 
warriors. All being seated in due form, I read the 
treaty, sentence by sentence, interpreted by Antoine 
LeClaire. I called up Black Hawk to affix his sign 
manual to the paper. He arose slowly and with 
dignity, while in the expression of his fine face there 
was a deep-seated grief and humiliation that no one 
could witness unmoved. When he reached the 
table, I handed him a pen, and pointed to the place 
where he was to affix his mark. He took the pen, 
made a large bold cross with force ] then returning it 
politely, he resumed his seat. It was an imposing 
ceremony ; scarcely a breath was drawn by any one. 
Thus ended the scene, one of the most impressive 
of the kind I ever looked upon." * 

General Gaines made a present to Black 
Hawk and his band of a large quantity of corn 

* " Letters from the Frontiers," by George A. McCall, 
p. 241. 



150 Iowa: the First Free State 

for their subsistence, and of five thousand 
dollars' worth of goods, and they immediately 
removed to the west side of the Mississippi, 
under promise not to return to the east side 
without permission from the Governor of IIH- 
nois or the President of the United States. 

Black Hawk might well have been content 
on the west side of the Mississippi, and planted 
his villages and corn-fields in some of the rich 
valleys of Iowa, as other chiefs had done. The 
country his people still held was of vast extent. 
All the Sacs and Foxes with the lowas num- 
bered but a few thousand souls. They had the 
protection of the United States in the posses- 
sion of about two hundred miles square of land 
as fair as any beneath the sun. Had Black 
Hawk stayed upon these lands, he would not 
have been disturbed for the rest of his Hfe. 
But insensible to these considerations, he 
nursed his grief and his vexation. Reckless 
of promises, confident of aid and support from 
other tribes, and even from his British father, 
he laid his plans to return to Rock River. 
Keokuk opposed them, and said to his people : 



in the Louisiana Purchase 151 

" Braves ! I am your chief, to rule you as a father 
at home, and lead you in war, if you are determined 
to go ; but in this war there is only one course. 
The United States is a great power ; and unless we 
conquer, we must perish. I will lead you on one 
condition only, that we put our old men and the 
women and children to death, and resolve when we 
cross the Mississippi never to return, but perish 
among the graves of our fathers." 

The majority listened to Keokuk and heeded 
his warnings; but others, the young braves 
especially, were eager to go on the warpath, 
and rallied to Black Hawk. It was while 
United States troops were on their way up the 
Mississippi to enforce a demand for the punish- 
ment of the Foxes who had murdered the 
Menomonees, that Black Hawk with several 
hundred warriors on horseback, and a retinue 
of followers, crossed the Mississippi at the 
Yellow Banks (Oquawka), on the sixth of 
April, 1832, to the terror of the settlers upon 
the Illinois frontier. His forces were recruited 
by some Winnebagoes and Pottawattamies. 
He raised the British flag. The United States 



152 Iowa: the First Free State 

Indian agent, St. Vrain, was murdered while 
extending the hand of friendship and implor- 
ing the chief Little Bear to desist from war. 
His body was mangled, his heart cut out and 
eaten by the savages. The whole number of 
Indian warriors was variously estimated at from 
six to eight hundred. The Black Hawk War 
was carried on in lUinois and in Wisconsin 
(then a part of Michigan Territory), and be- 
longs to the history of those States. Con- 
spicuous for his valor and energetic services 
in defeating Black Hawk was Henry Dodge. 
His bravery and daring at the battles of 
Pecatonica, Wisconsin Heights, and Bad Axe, 
led his compatriots to name him " Captain of 
aggressive civilization ; Hero of the Black 
Hawk War." By his influence over some 
Winnebago chiefs he secured the capture of 
Black Hawk, when in flight to Canada.* 

As some of the Winnebagoes and Pottawat- 
tamies abetted the war, those tribes shared in 
the disastrous consequences which fell to Black 

* A sketch of the services of Henry Dodge in the Black 
Hawk War is in the Iowa Historical Record, vi., 391-423. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 153 

Hawk. The people on the frontier called for 
their removal. Black Hawk went to war in 
order to keep the white man out of the 
country; the result of the war was to bring 
the white man in. It hastened the settlement 
of northern Illinois and of Wisconsin. The 
founding of the States of Wisconsin and Iowa, 
and of the city of Chicago, would have been 
delayed indefinitely but for this war. Thirty- 
five years afterwards, it was said at the annual 
meeting of the Historical Society of Wisconsin: 

" Those border wars may seem trivial, but when 
we consider Wisconsin as it then was, with roving 
bands of Indians the terror of the few whites, it will 
be seen that the settlement of the country depended 
upon the battle-fields of the Black Hawk War; 
instead of being uninteresting spots, they are the 
birthplace of our State." 

The Winnebagoes were convened in a coun- 
cil of their chiefs and head men at Rock Island, 
September 15, 1832, when they ceded to the 
United States all their lands in Illinois and 
Wisconsin, and the United States in exchange 



154 Iowa: the First Free State 

granted to them the " Neutral Ground," de- 
scribed above, and agreed to pay them annually 
for twenty-seven consecutive years the sum of 
ten thousand dollars, to establish a school for 
their children voluntarily sent to it, and to 
make other provisions for their benefit. The 
Winnebagoes engaged to deliver up certain 
individuals who were accused of murdering 
citizens of the United States in the late war, 
and to remove to the *' Neutral Ground " on 
or before June i, 1833. 

The removal of the Pottawattamies was 
arranged later, under a treaty made at Chicago, 
September 26, 1833, by which five milHon acres 
in western Iowa were assigned them. The 
United States met the expense of their re- 
moval, of their subsistence for one year after 
their arrival at their new home, and provided 
for the payment of more than eight hundred 
thousand dollars, to be expended for the erec- 
tion of mills, and for other useful objects, and 
in annuities to them. 

Soon after the capture of Black Hawk, the 
principal Sacs and Foxes who had not joined 



^, 



«/- 






V<" ,V^ 



^^^ ^. 



-K 



^ 




JKl SSOUTI . 



<^ 



* Mu.\^ "Brftct ^Jract- ^trea+wje-Zt. 



The Black Hawk Purchase, by Treaty of Sept. 21, 1832 



in the Louisiana Purchase 155 

him — Keokuk, Pa-she-pa-ho, and seven other 
Sacs, Wapello, Tama, Poweshiek, and twenty- 
one other Foxes — were summoned to a coun- 
cil with Commissioners of the United States, 
Major-General Winfield Scott, and Governor 
Reynolds, of Illinois. They met September 
21, 1832. In opening the council, General 
Scott reproached the Indians in stern lan- 
guage that they had not restrained Black Hawk 
from going to war ; and the Commissioners 
demanded as indemnity for the millions the 
war had cost the United States, and to secure 
the future safety of the invaded frontier, that 
they cede to the United States " a portion of 
their superfluous territory," bordering on that 
frontier. The Indians assented, and ceded to 
the United States a strip of territory lying 
along the Mississippi from the northern bound- 
ary of the State of Missouri to the '' Neutral 
Ground," about one hundred and ninety-five 
miles in length, part of it extending fifty miles 
west, part of it forty miles, embracing nearly six 
miUion acres. A reservation for the Indians in 
this cession was made of four hundred square 



156 Iowa: the First Free State 

miles, on both sides of the Iowa River, and 
embracing the villages of Keokuk and Wapello. 
In consideration of the extent of the cession 
the United States agreed to pay annually to the 
Sacs and Foxes for thirty years the sum of 
twenty thousand dollars. It was further agreed 
that the United States should hold Black Hawk, 
his two sons, and eight other warriors, as 
hostages for the future good conduct of the 
late hostile bands. They were then in confine- 
ment at Jefferson Barracks. Washington Irving 
was in St. Louis at the time, and went to see 
them. He wrote, September 16, 1832: 

" The redoubtable Black Hawk, who makes such 
a figure in our newspapers, is old, emaciated, and 
enfeebled. He has a small, well-formed head, an 
aquiline nose, a good expression of eye. His 
brother-in-law, the prophet, a strong, stout man, 
much younger, is considered the most culpable 
agent in fomenting the late disturbance ; though I 
find it difficult, even when so near the scene of 
action, to get at the right story of these feuds." 

After the treaty was concluded, General Scott 
invested Keokuk, the other chiefs consenting, 



in the Louisiana Purchase 157 

with the rank and gold medal of head chief, 
and gave them all a grand dinner. When night 
came on, batteries of rockets and fire-balls from 
mortars emblazoned the sky, amid savage 
shouts of astonishment and delight. Keokuk 
joined in presenting a pantomime of Indians 
on the warpath, surprising and capturing an 
enemy. A war-dance followed ; in the carousal 
young army officers made merry with the 
braves, dancing together. The ground on 
which the treaty was made was upon the west 
bank of the Mississippi, the site of the city of 
Davenport. At the close of the festive scenes 
the Indians dispersed, cheerful and contented. 
The ceded lands were called for a time *' Scott's 
Purchase," but later ** The Black Hawk Pur- 
chase," from the war which bore his name. 
The Indians agreed to remove from them on or 
before June i, 1833. The name of Scott is 
retained in that of the county which holds the 
ground where the treaty was made. The 
Indians left the Purchase, as they agreed, for 
their lands farther west, except that those who 
occupied the Reservation remained upon it. 



158 Iowa: the First Free State 

The United States troops who were protect- 
ing the Foxes at the Dubuque mines were sent 
against Black Hawk when the war broke out; 
at the same time the Foxes went and joined 
Black Hawk. In the desertion of their village, 
miners from the east side of the Mississippi 
again crossed over, and resumed operations at 
Dubuque, but were ordered off later by military 
authority ; as were adventurers who made claims 
at Flint Hills (Burlington), Fort Madison, and 
other points; the country belonging to the 
Indians until the day agreed upon for their 
removal. 

Black Hawk and the other hostages were 
confined at Jefferson Barracks until April, 1833, 
when they were sent to Fortress Monroe. At 
Washington the President, Andrew Jackson, 
received them in a kind spirit. He told them 
that the time of their detention would depend 
upon the conduct of their people : they would 
be set free as soon as it was ascertained that the 
bad feelings of their people were banished, and 
they were to remain in Fortress Monroe until he 
gave them permission to return to their homes. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 159 

Black Hawk made his explanation as to the 
cause of the war, and said that his people were 
exposed to attacks by the Sioux and Menomo- 
nees, and he wanted to return to take care of 
them. 

The President replied that he was apprised 
of the circumstances of the war, and it was 
unnecessary to look back to them. It was his 
purpose to secure the observance of peace, and 
prevent the frontiers from being again stained 
with blood. They need feel no uneasiness 
about the Sioux and Menomonees. He meant 
to compel the red men to be at peace with each 
other, as well as with their white neighbors. 
He had taken measures with this view, and 
when it was ascertained that they were effec- 
tual, — when the tribes learned that the power 
they attempted to contend with was equally 
able and disposed to protect the peaceful and 
to punish the guilty, and when assured that 
Black Hawk's people in particular were con- 
vinced of this and were disposed to observe the 
terms of peace granted to them, then they 
would be restored to their families. 



i6o Iowa: the First Free State 

The President then gave his hands to the 
chiefs and dismissed them. 

The next month Keokuk asked for the re- 
lease of the prisoners, and pledged himself for 
their good behavior, and the Government 
arranged to send them home. Upon their 
homeward route they had another interview with 
the President, at Baltimore. He said to them : 

" My children, when I saw you in Washington, I 
told you that you had behaved very badly in raising 
the tomahawk, and in killing men, women, and 
children upon the frontier. Your conduct compelled 
me to send my warriors against you ; your people 
were defeated, and your men surrendered, to be kept 
until I should be satisfied that you would not try to 
do any more injury. I told you I should inquire 
whether your people wished you should return, and 
whether if you did return, there would be any danger 
to the frontier. General Clark and General Atkinson 
have informed me that Keokuk, your principal chief, 
has asked me to send you back, and the rest of your 
people are anxious you should return. Your chiefs 
have pledged themselves for your good conduct, and 
I have given directions that you be taken to your own 
country. You will be taken through some of our 



in the Louisiana Purchase i6i 

towns. You will see the strength of the white 
people. You will see that our young men are as 
numerous as the leaves in the woods. What can you 
do against us? You may kill a few women and 
children, but such a force would soon be sent against 
you as would destroy your whole tribe. Let the red 
men hunt, and take care of their famihes ; but I hope 
they will not again raise their hands against their 
white brethren. We do not wish to injure you. We 
desire your prosperity and improvement. But if 
you again plunge your knives into the breasts of our 
people, I shall send a force which will severely 
punish you. When you go back, listen to the coun- 
sels of Keokuk and the other friendly chiefs. Bury 
the tomahawk, and live in peace with the frontiers. 
And I pray the Great Spirit to give you a smooth 
path and a clear sky to return." 

Black Hawk answered : 

" My Father : My ears are open to your words. 
I am glad to hear them. I am glad to go back to 
my people. I want to see my family. I did not 
behave well last summer. I ought not to have taken 
up the tomahawk. My people have suffered a great 
deal. When I get back I will remember your words. 
I will not go to war again. I will live in peace. I 
shall hold you by the hand." 

II 



1 62 Iowa: the First Free State 

The party were taken under the conduct of 
Major Garland, of the United States Army, 
through the cities of New York, Buffalo, Cleve- 
land, and Detroit, by way of Green Bay and the 
Wisconsin River, to Rock Island, where a large 
company of chiefs and braves assembled to 
welcome them. Keokuk said : 

*'The Great Spirit has been kind to them. He 
has listened to their prayers. They ought to be 
thankful. They had petitioned their great father to 
return Black Hawk and the other prisoners, and he 
has now sent them home to enjoy their liberty. The 
Great Spirit has changed the heart of the old chief; 
has given him a good one. Let the past be buried 
deep in the earth. Whilst his heart was wrong, he 
had done many bad things, but now after having 
travelled through many of the big towns he could see 
the folly of his past course, and would know how to 
govern himself in future." 

Keokuk then advanced with dignity, his arms 
folded, to Black Hawk, shook hands with him, 
and sat down. The other chiefs followed, each 
taking Black Hawk by the hand, not saying a 
word till Keokuk broke the silence; then all 



in the Louisiana Purchase 163 

joined in congratulations. No censure was cast 
upon the old chief. It was humiliation enough 
that he was now without honor and power, and 
indebted for obtaining his liberty to Keokuk, 
whom he had called a coward for not going to 
war. Major Garland expressed his pleasure at 
finding so much good feeling for Black Hawk, 
and his confidence that all would now live in 
peace. He reminded Black Hawk that Keokuk 
was at the head of the nation, that his counsels 
should be heeded, and that by the terms of the 
late treaty no band was to exist ** under any 
chief of the late hostile bands." Hereupon 
Black Hawk rose. in violent agitation. He said: 
*' I am an old man. I will not obey the coun- 
sels of any one. No one shall govern me." 
Keokuk at once turned to Black Hawk to allay 
his indignation, and asked that what he had 
said might not be remembered, that Black 
Hawk was too old to say anything good, and 
that he (Keokuk) was answerable for his good 
behavior. Black Hawk then recalled his words, 
and asked to have a black line drawn over 
them. Finally the pipe of peace was passed for 



164 Iowa: the First Free State 

all to take a whiff, and in return Major Garland 
served a glass of champagne. The ceremonies 
closed with a dance, in which Black Hawk's 
party did not join, but they retired sullen and 
dejected. 

In the spring following (1834), the Stock- 
bridge Indians, living near Green Bay, de- 
scendants of those in Massachusetts to whom 
Jonathan Edwards was a missionary (175 1- 
I757)> were moved to send a deputation of 
their number to the Sacs and Foxes, to per- 
suade them to give up their savage life, have 
schools, and adopt the ways of civilization. 
John Metoxen, a chief and a preacher, was at 
the head of the deputation. He had been 
educated in the Moravian School at Bethle- 
hem, Pennsylvania. In an interview with Black 
Hawk he told him that missionaries would do 
his people good, and advised him to receive 
them. Black Hawk replied that the trader 
(George Davenport) told him not to have 
anything to do with missionaries, for they 
would make the Indians worse. The Rev. 
Cutting Marsh, a missionary of the American 



in the Louisiana Purchase 165 

Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 
accompanied the deputation. He reported as 
follows : 

" Keokuk's, the principal village of the Sacs, is sit- 
uated on the eastern bank of the Iowa River, about 
twelve miles from its mouth. It contains between 
forty and fifty lodges, some are forty or fifty feet in 
length, constructed of bark. The village is at the 
northern extremity of a delightful prairie extending 
south and west. There were probably four hundred 
souls in it. 

*' Upon entering the village, which is formed with- 
out any order, my attention was attracted by Black 
Hawk's lodge. This was enclosed by a neat fence of 
poles, embracing foiir or five rods in a circular form. 
A little gate led into it; around the inside melon 
vines had been planted. The lodge was constructed 
of peeled bark. It was perfectly tight, except a hole 
at the top for the smoke to pass out. At the sides, 
places were built all around, about three feet from 
the ground, and mats spread over, on which they sat 
and slept. It was furnished with some dining chairs, 
which I saw at no other lodge in the nation. I was 
received politely by the children of Black Hawk, 
himself and wife being absent. I never before wit- 
nessed such a specimen of neatness and good order 



1 66 Iowa: the First Free State 

in any Indian lodge. Although Black Hawk is not 
permitted to hold any office, it is questionable 
whether he is not as much respected as the haughty 
Keokuk, who now holds the reins of government. 

" Wending my way to Keokuk's lodge, which was 
about fifty feet long, I found him sitting with prince- 
like dignity in one corner, surrounded by his young 
men, and wives not less than five. He appeared 
distant and not disposed to converse, but treated me 
with politeness and hospitality, and ordered his 
young men to put out the horses, and supper to be 
prepared. I found him unwilling to listen to any 
suggestions respecting the object of my visit, as was 
the other chief, Pash-e-pa-ho, the Stabber. There 
was the same unwillingness to hear anything respect- 
ing religion, and all made light of it when mentioned 
in the presence of the latter chief. 

" Wapello's village is about ten miles above Keo- 
kuk's, is considered to contain thirty lodges. He is 
a notorious drunkard, and his band follows the 
example of their chief. At this village I learned that 
a man murdered his wife a few days before, and then 
cut off her nose and ears. The Indians are jealous 
of their wives, and if at such times an Indian cuts 
off the nose or ears of his wife, no notice is' taken 
of it. 

" Powesheik's village is upon the Red Cedar, a 



in the Louisiana Purchase 167 

branch of the Iowa, about ten miles from its mouth. 
Povvesheik is second chief among the Foxes. The 
village contains about forty lodges and four hundred 
souls, as Powesheik informed me. He sent one of 
his young men to inform me I could stay at his 
lodge, and assigned me a place in it. He is about 
forty years of age, savage "in appearance, and very 
much debased, as well as all his band. Still he was 
more willing to converse than either of the chiefs 
before mentioned. I inquired about the instruction 
of his young men. He repHed that he would like to 
have two or three educated for interpreters, but he 
did not want schools, for he wished to have his young 
men warriors. I inquired if he should not like his 
young men to make farms. He answered they could 
work with a hoe, and did not want a plough ; they 
chose rather to hunt for a living than cultivate the 
ground. He said, *The Great Spirit made us to 
fight and kill one another when we are a mind to.' I 
showed some young men specimens of Ojibwa writ- 
ing, and asked if they would not like to have some 
one come and teach them. They answered, ' We do 
not want to learn ; we want to kill Sioux.' 

" Appanoose's village, called Au-tum-way-e-nauk 
(Perseverance Town), is situated upon the south side 
of the Des Moines, about one hundred and twenty- 
five miles from its mouth. This is the most eligible 



1 68 Iowa: the First Free State 

place I met with amongst the Sacs and Foxes for a 
missionary establishment. It is at a greater distance 
from the white settlements. The Des Moines, which 
the Indians call Ke-o-shaw-quah, is a rapid and 
beautiful river, remarkable for uniformity in width, 
being generally about forty rods wide. In its banks and 
bluffs coal is found in abundance. The fine, rolling 
prairies, covered with a luxuriant growth of grass and 
flowers of every hue, present a powerful inducement 
to search for treasures hid in their bosom. This 
whole region seems to have been formed by nature 
for agriculture, and I have little doubt will be covered 
with flocks and herds before another generation shall 
pass away. But what will become of the Indians ? 

" Besides the villages enumerated there are a num- 
ber of others consisting of three or four or half a 
dozen lodges, some of which I visited. 

" The Sacs and Foxes are strongly attached to 
their superstitions ; I have seen no Indians so much 
so, and they guard with jealous care against any 
change. Their great object is war and hunting, so as 
to rank among the braves, wear the polecat's tail 
upon the calves of the legs, and the shau-no-e-hun 
(small bells), and strike the post in the war- dance, 
and tell the number they have killed in battle. To 
this there are some exceptions. One of the most 
striking is Appanoose. He is young and aspiring. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 169 

and possesses more independence of mind than any 
of the rest of the chiefs. He expressed a desire to 
have something done for the improvement of his 
people. This was a great desideratum with his 
father, Tama, who was a much respected chief. He 
is anxious himself to receive instruction. He is 
one of the most kind and gentlemanly Indians I 
ever met. But he is a drunkard, and my not suc- 
ceeding to gain his consent to have a school estab- 
lished at his village I attribute to a drunken frolic at 
the time appointed to bring the matter before him. 
After he became sober he seemed far less inclined to 
do anything on the subject than before. 

" Keokuk in years past manifested a desire to have 
one of his sons educated, but his mind has been 
changed. He is altogether under the influence of 
the traders of the American Fur Company, who are 
exceedingly hostile to missionary operations. At a 
council, Colonel William Davenport, commanding 
officer at Fort Armstrong, strongly urged upon the 
chiefs to have missionaries. They replied, * We do 
not want missionaries.' 

** The Sacs and Foxes are in perpetual warfare with 
the Sioux. Their hunting-ground joins on the north- 
west, and there are mutual complaints of encroach- 
ment, which is one great cause of hostility. The 
Sacs and Foxes are more warlike, and more than a 



1 70 Iowa : the First Free State 

match when equal numbers meet in battle, but the 
Sioux are the most numerous by far, so that they live 
in constant fear of each other." * 



Previous to the Black Hawk War a few white 
persons had located themselves on the tract 
"intended for the use of the half-breeds be- 
longing to the Sac and Fox nations." Among 
those persons was Samuel C. Muir, an army 
surgeon, who had lived with a squaw, and who, 
when such an alliance was forbidden by the 
Government and required to be terminated, 
chose to retain it, and left the Government ser- 
vice. He was a native of Scotland, educated 
at Edinburgh, and said, " God forbid that a son 
of Caledonia should desert his child or disown 
his clan." He built the first house at Puck-a- 
she-tuk (foot of the rapids), where the city of 
Keokuk stands. The American Fur Company 
had a trading-post here, and built a row of log 
houses (" Rat Row ") for their business, Russell 
Farnham, manager. At the head of the rapids 
(Ah-wi-pe-tuk), a small settlement of white 

* Wis. Hist. Coll., XV., 104. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 171 

people built a log house in which Berryman 
Jennings taught a school in the winter of 1830- 
183 1, the first in Iowa. 

Some of the half-breeds were traders, in- 
terpreters, and employes of the American Fur 
Company. Among such was Maurice Blon- 
deau, who had a trading-house at Flint Hills, 
and died and was buried there in 1829; his 
name is preserved in that of one of the streets 
in Keokuk. But most of the half-breeds re- 
tained the habits of Indian life. In June, 1834, 
Congress relinquished the reversionary right of 
the United States in the tract to those who 
were entitled to the same under the laws of the 
State of Missouri, with power to sell their sev- 
eral portions. Questions then arose as to who 
and how many were the half-breeds, their re- 
spective claims, and as to the extent of the 
tract. Many of the half-breeds had scattered 
and vanished. There were fraudulent claim- 
ants. The questions became entangled and 
confused. They led to bitter disputes for years, 
and were not settled without many lawsuits and 
long Htigation in the courts. 



172 Iowa: the First Free State 

On the first day of June, 1833, the United 
States troops, who up to that time had guarded 
the Purchase against the incursion of the white 
people, and had removed intruders, and burned 
their cabins, were withdrawn, and the pioneers 
of the frontier entered in to make claims and 
settlements. A transformation of the wilder- 
ness commenced. There were some instances 
of strife and contention among the adventurers 
for town-sites, mill-sites, belts of timber, and the 
best lands, but good feeling generally prevailed, 
and rules and regulations as to claims were 
agreed upon in the interest of fair dealing and 
mutual protection. A petition was sent to 
Congress for the extension of the laws of the 
United States over them, and a bill was intro- 
duced to organize a Territorial government be- 
tween Lake Michigan and the Missouri River 
under the name of Wisconsin. *' This terri- 
tory," said Senator John Tipton, of Indiana, 
** must have ten thousand inhabitants, and will 
soon have two large States. Nearly three thou- 
sand people have located themselves on the 
west bank of the Mississippi, north of the State 



in the Louisiana Purchase 173 

of Missouri. Their petition to extend the laws 
over them lies on your table. We owe it to 
our country that our legislation keep pace with 
our population." Meanwhile, in the absence of 
established government, people took law and 
justice into their own hands, and dealt sum- 
marily with crime. An instance occurred at 
Dubuque in the trial and execution of Patrick 
O'Conner for the murder of George O'Keaf. 
Appeals were made in vain to the governor of 
Missouri, and to the judge of the western dis- 
trict of Michigan Territory; they disclaimed 
jurisdiction. A citizens' court conducted the 
trial with deliberation and solemnity. A jury 
was empanelled. All judicial forms were ob- 
served. The murder was committed on the 
nineteenth of May, 1834, and the execution 
took place on the twentieth of the following 
month. 

After having been without an established 
government for a year and one month. Con- 
gress interposed and attached the territory 
north of the State of Missouri and between 
the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers to the 



174 Iowa: the First Free State 

• 

Territory of Michigan for temporary govern- 
ment, and gave the inhabitants the same privi- 
leges and immunities, and subjected them to 
the same laws as other citizens of Michigan 
Territory. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 175 



X 

IN THE TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN 

June, 1834-JuLY 4, 1836 

THE country north of the State of Missouri 
being now attached to the Territory of 
Michigan, came again under the Ordinance of 
1787, which was extended over it in 1804, but 
withdrawn in 1805. Meanwhile, the act of Con- 
gress for the admission of the State of Missouri 
into the Union prohibited slavery north and west 
of that State. But the prohibition was dormant 
for fourteen years, until a strip of country north 
of Missouri was opened to settlement, when the 
prohibition proved a barrier to slavery. The 
pioneers welcomed the national authority. One 
of them has left this record : 

"An Irishman, Nicholas Carroll, living in the 
vicinity of Dubuque, first unfurled the Star Spangled 
Banner in Iowa. He contracted with us for the 
flag, and paid us the price, ten dollars. It was 



176 Iowa: the First Free State 

under our direction, and superintended by a black 
woman, who was a slave. It was run up soon after 
twelve o'clock in the morning of the Fourth of July, 
1834. The flags at Burlington and Davenport, we are 
informed, did not go up until after sunrise on that 
day." * 

Congress provided for an extra session of the 
Legislative Council of Michigan Territory, and 
appropriated three thousand dollars for the 
travel and time of members, and for incidental 
expenses. The Council was convened at De- 
troit, September i, 1834. The Governor, 
Stevens T. Mason, said in his message: 

" The inhabitants on the western side of the 
Mississippi are an intelligent, industrious, and enter- 
prising people, and their interests are entitled to our 
special attention. At this time they are peculiarly 
situated. Without the limits of any regularly or- 
ganized government, they depend alone upon their 
own virtue, intelligence, and good sense, as a 
guaranty of their mutual and individual rights and 
interests. Spread over an extensive country, the 
immediate organization of one or two counties, with 

* Eliphalet Price. " Annals of Iowa," 1865. p. 538. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 177 

one or more townships in each county, is respectfully 
suggested, and urged. A Circuit and County Courts 
will also be necessary, making a special circuit for the 
counties west of the Mississippi, as it would be 
unreasonable to require the attendance of inhabitants 
of that section at courts east of the river. I rely 
upon your diligence and wisdom for the measures 
demanded by the annexation of the new territory to 
the limits of Michigan." 

Accordingly, by " an act to lay off and or- 
ganize counties west of the Mississippi River," 
the Council constituted two counties, Dubuque 
and Demoine, and made them each a township ; 
one, Julien ; the other, Flint Hill. A line drawn 
due west from the lower end of Rock Island 
was made the boundary between the counties. 
A county court was provided for each county, 
and the laws then in force in Iowa County, and 
process civil and criminal, and writs of error 
from the Circuit Court of that county, were 
extended to the new counties. 

Iowa County was at that time the nearest 

organized portion of Michigan Territory to the 

new counties. It was constituted in 1829, and 

12 



178 Iowa: the First Free State 

named by Henry R. Schoolcraft, then a member 
of the Council. It embraced the mining region 
north of Illinois to the Wisconsin River, and 
extended west to the Mississippi. The condi- 
tions of society there and at the Dubuque mines 
were similar. There was a rush of adventurers, 
sometimes disputing one another's claims. The 
miners, under the system then in vogue paid 
the United States ten per cent on the lead they 
manufactured and raised as rent for land. 
From the judicial relation of Iowa County to 
the new counties, and from the fact that the 
same United States judge, David Irvin, held court 
in Iowa County, and afterwards in the counties 
of the Black Hawk Purchase, those counties 
were spoken of as " The Iowa District." This 
was the earliest application of the name " Iowa " 
to a part of what became the Territory of 
Iowa in 1838, and the State of Iowa in 1846. 
On the sixth of September, 1834, with the 
consent of the Legislative Council, Governor 
Mason appointed to office in Dubuque County 
men who were recommended by their fellow- 
citizens. They were men of character and 



in the Louisiana Purchase 179 

ability. Among them were John King, as 
Chief Justice of the County Court, who es- 
tabHshed the first newspaper in Iowa, " The 
Dubuque Visitor," May 11, 1836; and Lucius 
H. Langworthy as sheriff, an early and honored 
pioneer of the Dubuque mines. 

To provide officers for Demoine County, the 
Governor asked the inhabitants to nominate 
suitable persons. He sent the laws of the 
Territory to William R. Ross, M. D., Flint Hills, 
with instructions to hold an election. The 
package, enveloped in oil-cloth, was addressed 
to Macomb, Illinois, as the nearest post-office 
to Flint Hills. Dr. Ross published written 
notices for an election in every settlement, 
and forwarded the names of those elected to 
the Governor at Detroit, who appointed them, 
with the consent of the Legislative Council, 
December, 1834, as follows: William Morgan, 
Chief Justice; William R. Ross, County Clerk; 
Solomon Perkins, Sheriff. All were pioneers of 
1833. Subsequently, March, 1846, Isaac Leffler 
was appointed Chief Justice: he had served 
eight years in the Legislature of Virginia, 



i8o Iowa: the First Free State 

was a member of Congress from the Wheeling 
District, Virginia, 1 827-1 829, was elected to 
the First Legislative Assembly of Wisconsin 
Territory, and was Speaker of the House at 
its second session. William R. Ross, the 
County Clerk, became the first postmaster at 
Flint Hills, subsequently called Burlington; 
he made the first survey of streets and lots 
for the town, and built a Methodist Church, 
"free for every order to preach in," afterwards 
called ** Old Zion," in which the First, Second, 
and Third Legislative Assemblies of the Terri- 
tory of Iowa held their sessions, and courts 
were held for a number of years. 

The character of these men, and their ap- 
pointment in answer to the recommendation of 
the people, shows that a regard for intelligence, 
for moral order, and for local and represent- 
ative government, existed in the first settle- 
ment of Iowa. The population, however, was 
not without baser mixtures. While the axe 
and the plough made clearings in the wilderness, 
and a log schoolhouse, which was often used 
for religious meetings, arose in many settle- 



in the Louisiana Purchase i8i 

merits, vice and crime, gambling and drunken- 
ness, had their dupes and victims, and disputes 
over mine-claims and land-claims brought on 
broils and murders. 

For protection against Indian disturbances 
three companies of Colonel Henry Dodge's 
United States Dragoons were stationed at the 
head of the Lower Rapids of the Mississippi. 
The place was called Camp Des Moines. For 
a while the soldiers patrolled the frontier, but 
they were hardly needed, as the Indians did 
not disturb the settlements, though the Sacs 
and the Sioux still kept at war with each other. 

In the summer of 1835 the dragoons made 
a long march up and down the frontier, of 
which Lieutenant Albert Lea many years after- 
wards gave these reminiscences : 

"On the seventh of June, 1835, ^^^ three com- 
panies began the march. The command consisted 
of one field officer, Lieutenant Colonel Kearney; 
one captain, Nathan Boone ; and two lieutenants, 
Lea and H. S. Turner; and about one hundred 
and sixty rank and file, with, five four-mule teams 
and a pack horse to take commissary stores for 
three months. 



1 82 Iowa: the First Free State 

"Our route was along the divide between the 
Mississippi and Des Moines rivers, the ground still 
soft from excessive rains ; but the grass and streams 
were beautiful, and strawberries so abundant as to 
make the whole track red for miles together, and as 
our progress north, about fifteen miles per day, 
coincided with their ripening, we had this luxury 
for many weeks, increased by the incident of one 
of our beeves becoming a milker ; and, as the mas- 
ter of the herd was of my company, I had the 
monopoly of the grateful food, seldom enjoyed so 
far from civilization. 

" The grass was fine, and our horses and beeves 
gradually grew fat ; but the Indians had burnt the 
old grass, leaving short hazel stubs, which penetrated 
the horses' feet, softened by the wet earth, causing 
fistulas between the frog and the shell, to be cured 
only by the knife or caustic. My long parade horse 
was the first victim, becoming very lame, when I 
threw him, cut away all the fistula in reach, and 
ran a short stick of lunar caustic up over the frog, 
replaced the shoe with a boot leg and padding, and 
turned him out for the night. Although usually 
rude and unwilling to be handled, early next day 
he came to my tent door and extended his foot for 
treatment. As we had no veterinarian, many claimed 
my services for that and other afflictions horse flesh 





pi 

V 



Albert M. Lea 



in the Louisiana Purchase 183 

is heir to, and thus what I had learned from my 
father on a farm in the mojuntains of East Tennessee 
served the Government and my friends on the wild 
plains of the far west. All knowledge is worth 
treasuring. 

*' Some weeks' march north we passed near the 
head of Skunk River (given me in the Sac tongue 
as Chicaqua, a modification of the Pottawattamie 
Chicago), when a gosling ran through our ranks, and 
was chased by a raw German on foot to a curious 
lake, apparently dammed artificially by a wall of 
boulders, and marked on my sketch as Swan Lake. 
Not far from the head of Skunk River, in the midst 
of an ocean of fine native grass, such as only Iowa 
produces, we encountered a small herd of buffalo, to 
which many of us gave chase. It was the first and 
only time I have seen the lordly beast in his home, 
and probably the last time he appeared in that 
region.* Meat was plenty in camp that night, 
including a calf brought in alive ; but my feast was 
found in the marrow, which Agent Dougherty f had 
taught me to esteem. 

" After moving to the Mississippi, where a noted 

* In 1842 a hunting party from Burlington, in which was 
John C. Breckinridge, afterwards Vice-President of the United 
States, 1857-1861, found buffalo in this region. 

t John Dougherty, United States Indian Agent for the 
Pawnees, Omahas, and Otoes on the Missouri River. 



184 Iowa: the First Free State 

landmark, known as * La Montagne que trempe a 
Teau/ was plainly in view, and awaiting the arrival 
of a steamboat with supplies, our march was west- 
ward, and we soon got into a region of lakes and 
open groves of oak, beautiful as English parks. 

"Six years after, when Chief Clerk of the War 
Department, I was breakfasting one Sunday with 
Nicollet in the room where his great map of the 
upper Mississippi was under construction, glued on a 
large drawing table, when he led the talk to the map 
of that country, made from notes and sketches of 
this campaign, and he was enthused by my sketch 
of a scene on a particular lake. * Ah,' said he, ' zat 
ees fine, zat ees magnifique ! What you call 'im ? ' 
' I named it from its shape. Lake Chapeau.' ' Zat ees 
not de name ; it is Lake Albert Lea ; ' and he ran to 
the big table, and wrote the name on the map, and 
the name is still attached to the lake, and a fair 
little city bearing the same has grown up on its 
border. 

" Thence our march was still through rich prairies, 
interspersed with lakes and groves; across the Des 
Moines River, which we descended to the mouth of 
the Raccoon Fork, a grassy and spongy meadow with 
a bubbling spring in the midst, near which my tent 
was pitched ; and the side of a fat young deer was 
spitted before the fire, and despatched with great 



in the Louisiana Purchase 185 

gusto by the aid of two brother officers, and a bottle 
of fine old French brandy, obtained from Chouteau's 
stock, and carried the whole campaign in my wallet, 
untasted. The capital of Iowa now covers that site. 

" The next morning, a bright Sunday, I got orders 
to reconnoitre the Des Moines River by descending it 
in a canoe, to ascertain the practicability of naviga- 
tion with keel boats, with a view to the establishment 
of a military post. A goodly cottonwood was selected ; 
my men set to work with a will, and at sunrise Tuesday 
I bade adieu to the camp and, aided by a soldier and 
an Indian, started on my toilsome task, sounding all 
shoals, taking courses with a pocket compass, esti- 
mating distances from bend to bend by the time and 
rate of motion, sketching every notable thing, occa- 
sionally landing to examine the geology of the rocks, 
and sleeping in the sand despite the gnats and mos- 
quitoes. We made the trip without accident, and 
leaving our canoe at the trading-house (Keokuk), 
we footed it to the fort, where we arrived many days 
before the main body, who returned leisurely by land, 
and arrived in fine order, without the loss of a man, a 
horse, a tool, or a beef, which were fatter than at the 
starting, after a march of eleven hundred miles. 

''During a very cold spell in February, 1836, I 
rode from the fort up the river, stopped at the rav/ 
village of Burlington one night, and next day reached 



1 86 Iowa: the First Free State 

the mouth of Iowa River at dark, and was refused 
shelter in the only house there, occupied by a drink- 
ing crowd of men and women, and was obliged to go 
up the narrow crooked river on the ice, four inches 
thick, with snow three inches deep on it, in moonless 
darkness relieved only by the snow, four miles to a 
snug cabin on the north side, where aroused at 9 
p. M. they received me kindly, gave me supper, and 
a sleep with the hired man, the other two beds being 
occupied by the squatter and wife and many children, 
grown daughters included, the cook stove being in 
the fourth corner, and yet we were all comfortable, 
and as gay at breakfast as if feasting at a wedding. 
"About noon that day the head of Muscatine 
Slough was reached, where * a squatter had a small 
cabin of unhewn poles and two stacks of prairie hay, 
which with his * claim ' he offered me for fifty dollars, 
but I had no idea that he held the position I was 
seeking, and pushed on by starlight to Ben Nye's at 
the mouth of Pine River, which I was well assured 
was the coveted apex of the great bend. The next 
morning I bought all his claims, and rode on, in high 
spirits, to visit the officers at Fort Armstrong. After 
two nights and a day at the hospitable garrison, I 
returned to our post."t 

* Site of the city of Muscatine. 

t Iowa Historical Records, vi., 546-552. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 187 

The same summer that the dragoons made 
this march upon the western frontier of the 
Black Hawk Purchase, George Catlin passed 
up and down its eastern border. He says: 

*^ During such a tour, the mind of a contemplative 
man is continually building splendid seats, cities, 
towns, villas. States, for posterity ; it would seem that 
this vast region of rich soil and green fields was 
almost enough for a world by itself. On the upper 
Mississippi and Missouri for the distance of eight 
hundred miles above St. Louis is one of the most 
beautiful champaign countries in the world, continu- 
ally alternating into timber and fields of the softest 
green, calculated from its latitude for people of the 
northern and eastern States, and Jonathan is already 
here from ' down east.* 

" A visit to Dubuque will be worth the while of 
every traveller ; for the speculator and man of enter- 
prise it affords the finest field now open in our 
country. It is a town of two hundred houses, built 
within the last two years on one of the most delight- 
ful sites on the Mississippi, in the richest part of the 
mining region, having this advantage over most other 
mining countries, that the land on the surface pro- 
duces the finest corn. This is certainly the richest 
section of country on the continent. In the society 



1 88 Iowa: the First Free State 

of hospitable friends I found myself amply repaid for 
a couple of weeks spent in the examination of the 
extensive lead mines, walking and creeping eighty 
or a hundred feet below the surface through caverns 
decked in stalactite and spar, with walls of glistening 
lead, and rich stalagmites that grow up from the 
bottom. 

" Dubuque's grave is a place of great notoriety on 
this river. After his death his body was placed in 
the tomb, lying in state upon a large flat stone, ex- 
posed to view, as his bones now are to the gaze of any 
traveller who takes pains to ascend the grassy, lily- 
covered mound to the top, and peep through the 
gratings of two little windows. 

" At the foot of the bluff there is an extensive 
smelting furnace, where vast quantities of lead are 
melted from the ores which are dug out of the 
hills. 

** From Dubuque I descended the river on a 
steamer, with my bark canoe laid on its deck, to 
Gamp Des Moines, and joined General Joseph M. 
Street, the Indian agent, in a tour to Keokuk's vil- 
lage. Golonel Kearney gave us a corporal's com- 
mand of eight men, with horses, for the journey, and 
we reached the village in two days' travel, about 
sixty miles up the Des Moines. The country we 
passed over was like a garden, wanting only cultiva- 



in the Louisiana Purchase 189 

tion, mostly prairie, and we found the village beau- 
tifully situated on the bank of the river. They 
seemed well supplied with the necessaries of life, 
and with some of its luxuries. I found Keokuk a 
chief of fine and portly figure, with a good counte- 
nance, and dignity and grace in his manners. He 
placed before us good brandy and wine, and invited 
us to drink, and to lodge with him. 

" We were just in time to see the curious custom 
of * smoking horses.' The Foxes were making up a 
war-party to go against the Sioux, and had not 
suitable horses enough by twenty. The day before 
they had sent word to the Sacs that they were 
coming on that day at a certain hour to * smoke * 
that number of horses, and they must have them 
ready. On that day, and at the hour, the twenty 
young men who were beggars for horses were on 
the spot, and seated themselves on the ground and 
went to smoking. Soon an equal number of young 
Sacs, who had agreed each to give a horse, appeared, 
galloping around at full speed until they were close 
to the fellows on the ground, when each selected the 
one to whom he decided to present his horse and 
gave him a tremendous cut on his naked shoulders 
with a heavy whip, and, darting round again and 
again, he plied the whip until he saw the blood 
trickling down his shoulders, when he dismounted 



190 Iowa: the First Free State 

and placed bridle and whip in his hands, saying, 
* Here, beggar, I present you a horse, but you will 
carry my mark on your back.' In this manner 
they were all ' whipped up,' and each had a good 
horse to go to war with. The stripes and the scars 
were the price of the horse, and the Sac had the 
satisfaction of putting his mark upon the Fox. 

" With about twenty of his principal men Keokuk 
came to Camp Des Moines with us. He brought 
in all his costly wardrobe that I might select such as 
suited me best for his portrait ; but at once, of his 
own accord, he named the one that was purely In- 
dian. In that he paraded for several days, and in 
it I painted him at full length. He is a man of a 
great deal of pride, and makes a splendid appear- 
ance on his black horse. IJe owns the finest horse 
in the country, and is excessively vain of his appear- 
ance when mounted and arrayed — himself and 
horse — in all their gear and trappings, his scalps 
attached to the bridle-bits. He expressed a wish 
to see himself represented on horseback, and I 
painted him in that plight. He rode and nettled 
his prancing steed in front of my door until its sides 
were in a gore of blood. I succeeded to his satis- 
faction ; his vanity increased, no doubt, by seeing 
himself immortalized in that way. After finishing 
him I painted his favorite wife (one of seven), his 



in the Louisiana Purchase 191 

favorite boy, and eight or ten of his principal men 
and women, after which all shook hands with me, 
wishing me well, Keokuk leaving me the most 
valued article of his dress and a beautiful string of 
wampum which he took from his wife's neck. They 
departed in good spirits to prepare for their fall 
hunt." 

At this period the affairs of Michigan 
Territory were complicated by the organiza- 
tion of a part of the Territory as the State 
of Michigan. For the remainder of the Ter- 
ritory a new apportionment of members of 
the Legislative Council was made, by which 
Dubuque and Demoine counties were each 
entitled to two members. Allen Hill and 
John Parker were elected in Dubuque County ; 
Joseph B. Teas and Jeremiah Smith in De- 
moine County. At the same election, October, 
1835, t^^ ^^s^ election by law in what is now 
Iowa, George W. Jones was elected Delegate 
to Congress from Michigan Territory. He had 
been nominated for the office by Augustus C. 
Dodge at a public meeting in Mineral Point. 
Both had served with Colonel Henry Dodge 



192 Iowa: the First Free State 

in the Black Hawk War. They were men of firm 
and resolute character, and became prominent 
in the public service. After nearly fifty years 
they stood hand in hand at a celebration in 
Burlington of the first settlement of Iowa, 
when George W. Jones made grateful recol- 
lection of the fact that of the two hundred 
votes in that precinct polled at that election 
he received all but six. 

The seventh and last Legislative Council 
of Michigan Territory was convened at Green 
Bay, January i, 1836. It was in the depth 
of winter, and the members from Demoine 
County made the journey through deep snows 
on horseback; those elected from Dubuque 
County did not attend. Meanwhile, Governor 
Mason had been elected Governor of the State 
of Michigan; whereupon President Jackson 
appointed John S. Horner Governor of the 
Territory of Michigan. He proved unworthy 
of the office. The Council was organized by 
choosing John B. Teas Temporary President; 
on the second day William Schuyler Hamilton, 
a son of Alexander Hamilton, was elected 



in the Louisiana Purchase 103 

President. By a vote of eight to one the 
Council asked President Jackson to revoke the 
commission of Governor Horner, which he 
declined to do. A memorial to Congress for 
a separate Territorial government west of Lake 
Michigan was adopted : 

" Thrown off by Michigan in the formation of her 
new State, without an acting governor to enforce 
the laws, without a competent civil jurisdiction to 
give security to our lives and property, we ask the 
intervention of the national aid to give us a new 
efficient political existence. It has been decided 
by the Federal Court that the population west of 
the Mississippi are not under its jurisdiction, and the 
monstrous anomaly is presented that citizens of 
the United States living in its territory should 
be unprotected by its courts of civil and criminal 
jurisprudence." 

On the presentation of this memorial in the 
United States Senate, John M. Clayton, of Dela- 
ware, referred to a recent murder in Dubuque, 
where the murderers were arrested, but after 
argument before the United States Circuit Court 

13 



194 Iowa: the First Free State 

at Mineral Point, David Irvin presiding judge, 
they were discharged for want of jurisdiction. 

" Mr. Clayton observed that Congress ought not to 
permit this state of things to exist. One of the largest 
and most fertile portions of our country by the neglect 
of Congress was permitted to remain the scene of 
lawless violence, where private vengeance was the 
substitute for public justice. Let us act on this sub- 
ject promptly ; and if we do our duty towards this 
noble Territory, the day is not distant when it will be 
made to appear that it is capable of supporting the 
population of an empire." * 

The action of Congress was delayed by a dis- 
pute as to the boundary line between Ohio and 
the new State of Michigan, and also by the fact 
that the admission of Michigan into the Union 
was coupled with that of Arkansas, under the 
then popular fad that to preserve the balance of 
power a free and a slave State must come into 
the Union together ; but, as the constitution of 
Arkansas forbade emancipation, many members 

* Debates in Congress, xii., 978. Dubuque, by L. H. Lang- 
worthy, pp. 29-34. Wis. His. Coll., XV., 287-289. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 195 

of Congress were slow to acquiesce in the ad- 
mission into the Union of a State with such a 
provision in its fundamental law. 

Finally, and largely through the persistent 
efforts of the delegate from Michigan Territory, 
Congress created the Territorial government of 
Wisconsin by an act approved April 30, 1836, 
The Territory covered the country between 
Lake Michigan and the Missouri and White 
Earth rivers, north of the States of Illinois and 
Missouri. The act provided for a legislative 
body of two houses, and was in this respect 
an advance upon former laws for Territorial 
government. 

Before its adjournment, January 15, 1836, the 
Legislative Council of Michigan Territory, in 
expectation that the new Territory would em- 
brace the country on both sides of the Missis- 
sippi, voted, seven to two, in favor of Cassville on 
the east bank of the river for the location of the 
capital. " Nature has done all in her power to 
make it one of the most desirable spots in the 
far West," said Wm. S. Hamilton. Soon after- 
wards Dubuque was claimed by citizens of that 



196 Iowa: the First Free State 

town as a more desirable location. A little later 
the proprietors of Davenport were confident 
that the seat of government for the new Terri- 
tory would be in that city ; as was Albert Lea, 
that " the mouth of Pine River, at the apex of 
the great bend " of the Mississippi, would be 
the site ; he named it " Iowa," and called it " the 
capital of the future State of Iowa." 

While new settlers were thronging into the 
Black Hawk Purchase, the Winnebagoes and 
Pottawattamies were slowly and reluctantly leav- 
ing their old homes on Rock River, and about 
Lake Michigan, for the new lands assigned 
them ; the Winnebagoes for what is now north- 
eastern Iowa, the Pottawattamies for what is 
southwestern Iowa. 

Albert Lea was so enraptured with the coun- 
try during his residence and travels in it, that 
he was moved in April, 1836, to write a de- 
scription of its situation and advantages. He 
says: 

" Taking this District all in all, for convenience of 
navigation, water, fuel, timber, for richness of soil, for 



in the Louisiana Purchase 197 

beauty of appearance, for pleasantness of climate, it 
surpasses any portion of the United States with which 
I am acquainted. Could I present to the reader the 
view before my eyes, he would see the Mississippi 
flowing gently and lingeringly along one side of the 
District as if in regret at leaving so delightful a 
region ; he would see half a dozen navigable rivers, 
their sources in distant regions, gradually accumulat- 
ing their waters as they glide through this favored 
region to pay their tribute to the ' Father of Waters ' ; 
he would see innumerable creeks and rivulets mean- 
dering through rich pasturages, where the domestic 
ox has taken the place of the untamed bison; he 
would see here and there groves of oak and elm and 
walnut, half-shading, half-concealing beautiful little 
lakes, that mirror back their waving branches; he 
would see prairies of two or three miles in extent, 
inclosed by woods, along which are ranged the neat- 
hewed log-cabins of the emigrants, their fields stretch- 
ing into the prairies, their herds luxuriating in the 
native grass ; he would see villages springing up along 
the banks of the rivers ; and he would see the swift 
steamboats to supply the wants of the settlers, to take 
away their surplus produce, or bring an accession to 
the growing population, anxious to participate in 
nature's bounties here so liberally dispensed. 



198 Iowa: the First Free State 

" During the year 1835, ^^^ chief part of the pop- 
ulation arrived, and there is every indication of a vast 
accession during 1836. There are now emigrants 
from every State in the Union, as well as many 
foreigners. During a ride of one hundred and fifty 
miles through the District in January, 1836, I was 
surprised at the number of improvements then being 
made for occupation as soon as the warm season 
should set in. With few exceptions, there is not a 
more orderly, industrious, painstaking population west 
of the Alleghanies. For intelligence they are not sur- 
passed as a body by an equal number of citizens of 
any country in the world. About the mining region 
is a mixed mass of English, French, German, Irish, 
Scotch, and citizens of every part of the United 
States. 

" This District, being north of the State of Missouri 
is forever free from the institution of slavery, accord- 
ing to the compact made on the admission of that 
State into the Union. So far as political wealth and 
strength is concerned, this is a great advantage ; for 
free States grow more rapidly than slave States. 
Compare Ohio and Kentucky; and what would not 
Missouri have now been, had she never admitted 
slavery within her borders? 

"It may appear to some unacquainted with the 



in the Louisiana Purchase 199 

character of our Western people, and not apprised of 
the rapid growth of this country, that some of my 
descriptions and predictions are fanciful ; but if there 
be error, it is that the truth is not fully expressed 
rather than transcended." * 

* " Notes on the Wisconsin Territory, particularly with 
reference to the Iowa District, or Black Hawk Purchase," by 
Lieutenant Albert M. Lea, United States Dragoons. Phila- 
delphia, Henry S. Tanner, 1836. 



200 Iowa: the First Free State 



XI 

IN THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN 

1 836-1838 

HENRY DODGE was appointed Governor 
of the new Territory. After heroic ser- 
vices in the Black Hawk War, he had conducted 
two United States military expeditions as colonel 
of dragoons to the base of the Rocky Mountains 
among the Indians of the plains, and was now 
welcomed back to his home by the pioneers 
among whom he had lived since 1827. He 
took the oath of office at Mineral Point, on 
the fourth of July, 1836. It was a gala day, the 
occasion blending with a celebration of the 
sixtieth anniversary of American independence 
by the people of the mining region. A similar 
celebration was held the same day at Dubuque, 
to which the Governor had been invited. His 
friends at that place said : ** He has been our 



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in the Louisiana Purchase 201 

leader through two Indian wars, and is now 
Governor of the Territory and Superintendent 
of Indian Affairs in the Northwest. His ex- 
perience as a frontier-man and Indian-fighter 
has pointed him out for these responsible 
stations." 

With the exception of a few settlements of 
white people, upon Lake Michigan, in the min- 
ing region, and in the Black Hawk Purchase, 
the occupants of Wisconsin Territory and mas- 
ters of the soil at this period were the red men 
of various tribes scattered over immense dis- 
tances. As Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 
the Governor was charged with composing dif- 
ferences between the different tribes, keeping 
them at peace with each other, and with the 
United States, and making bargains and treaties 
for cessions of land. In this work his duties 
were similar to those previously of William 
Henry Harrison, Governor of Indiana Terri- 
tory, Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan Terri- 
tory, and William Clark, Governor of Missouri 
Territory, in opening the country to civilization. 

On the third of September, 1836, Governor 



202 Iowa: the First Free State 

Dodge concluded a treaty with the Menomo- 
nees for the cession of more than five million 
acres of pine lands in the Green Bay region, 
which were thrown open to lumbermen, and 
from which great industries arose that in a few 
years covered vast prairies with farmhouses 
and villages. 

On the twenty-seventh of the same month, the 
Governor held a convention with the chiefs and 
braves of the Sac and Fox tribes at Daven- 
port, in which they relinquished to the United 
States all their interest in the lands lying be- 
tween the west boundary line of the State of 
Missouri and the Missouri River. Those lands 
were without any Territorial organization, and 
the haunt of desperadoes and outlaws. The 
Governor, when in command at Fort Leaven- 
worth as colonel of dragoons, had suggested 
the expediency of attaching those lands to 
the State of Missouri, which was subsequently 
done, and those lands were divided into six 
counties, which became rich and populous. 
The relation of the matter to slavery was not 
then foreseen or mentioned. But in the mu- 



in the Louisiana Purchase 203 

tation of affairs, it came about that from those 
counties in 1854, a host of propagandists went 
forth to make Kansas a slave State, which led 
to the Civil War. It is also noteworthy that 
by appointment of Governor Dodge, James W. 
Grimes, of Burlington, was secretary of the con- 
vention. He had come into the Black Hawk 
Purchase when it was a part of the Territory 
of Michigan. He was now not quite twenty-one 
years of age. It came about in less than 
twenty years that he bore a conspicuous and 
leading part in opposition to the slavery propa- 
gandists. 

On the twenty-eighth of September, 1836, 
Governor Dodge held a treaty with the same 
Indians, by which they relinquished to the 
United States the reservation on the Iowa River 
which they had held under the treaty of Septem- 
ber 21, 1832. James W. Grimes also acted as 
Secretary in making this treaty ; and among the 
witnesses were Joseph M. Street, Indian Agent; 
L. Dorsey Stockton, Jr. ; * Antoine Leclaire, 
Interpreter; P. R. Chouteau, Jr.; Jeremiah 

* Judge of the Supreme Court of Iowa, 1856-1860. 



204 Iowa: the First Free State 

Smith, Jr. ; George Davenport; George Catlin. 
The treaty provided for the payment to the 
Indians of thirty thousand dollars the next 
year, an annuity for ten years of ten thousand 
dollars, the payment of all their debts to the 
traders to the amount of more than fifty thou- 
sand dollars, the payment of one thousand dol- 
lars to the widow and children of Felix St. 
Vrain, their former United States agent, killed 
by the Indians in the Black Hawk War, and 
sundry sums for the benefit of half-breed and 
other children. Provision was also made for 
a payment to the Iowa Indians for a part of 
the land to which they set up a claim. The 
Sacs and Foxes at once left the reservation 
and removed to their lands on the Des Moines 
River, or farther up the Iowa River. An eye- 
witness gave the following report of what he 
saw at the treaty: 

'*The two bands of Foxes (Wapello's and 
Powesheik's) were camped on the west side of 
the Mississippi on the slope of the bluffs opposite 
Rock Island. At a distance the encampment looked 
picturesque, as the Indians arrayed in their green or 



in the Louisiana Purchase 205 

red blankets flitted about the bulrush and bark tents, 
their horses browsing on the bluff tops. The scene 
appeared like a picture of an Arab encampment. 
A nearer view showed the dirty paraphernalia of 
skinning, jerking meat, and cooking, around the 
tents. 

" Half a mile above, nearer the river bank, on a 
kind of promontory, were the more neatly arranged 
tents of the Sacs, in the form of a crescent. Above 
them, fronting the hollow of the crescent, was the 
Council Lodge. At one end were Governor Dodge, 
Captain Boone, Lieutenant Lea, General Street, and 
the traders ; on the east side were the tawny warriors 
decked in their finery, the mass of them standing, 
the chiefs and headmen sitting in front, all listening 
to the propositions of the Governor, and as each 
sentence was interpreted, signifying their approbation 
by the exclamation, * Hugh ! ' 

" Wapello commands respect amid his apparent 
indifference and air of nonchalance. Appanoose 
is a young-looking fellow, talented but dissipated. 
Pashapaho, with his uncombed, unshorn hair, and his 
fierce countenance, is rendered hideous by smearing 
it fantastically with black. 

" Keokuk is of noble countenance, fine contour, 
tall and portly ; his chest, shoulders, and right arm 
bare, save a necklace of bears* claws, and a large 



2o6 Iowa: the First Free State 

snakeskin encircling and pendant from his right arm. 
In the left hand he sported a fine Pongee silk hand- 
kerchief. The snakeskin was lined with some rich 
material, and had little bells attached to it, giving a 
tinkling sound at every gesture that added grace and 
impressiveness to his elocution. He advanced with 
stately step; the trappings of his white buckskin 
leggings set off his finely formed and comparatively 
small foot to advantage. He advanced to the 
Governor's stand and shook hands with him. Then, 
falling back half a dozen steps, with eyes fixed on 
the Governor, he began his speech. His voice rang 
clear as a trumpet. Fluent in words, he was energetic 
and graceful in action." * 

George Catlin recorded his observations of 
the scene : 

"Descending the Mississippi in our neat little 
'dugout' by the aid of our paddles, we reached 
Rock Island in time to see a savage community 
transferring the soil to the grasp of pale-faced 
voracity. We found the river, the shores, and the 
plains contiguous, alive and vivid with plumes, with 
spears, and war-clubs of the yelling red men. The 
whole of the Sacs and Foxes are gathered here ; 

^ I * Iowa Historical Recordf viii., 309. 




Henry Dodge 



in the Louisiana Purchase 207 

their appearance is thrilling and pleasing. They 
have sold so much land that they have the luxuries 
of life to a considerable degree, — may be con- 
sidered rich, are elated, — carrying themselves much 
above the humbled manners of the semi-civilized 
tribes, whose heads hang and droop in poverty and 
despair. 

*' Keokuk was the principal speaker. Black Hawk 
was present. The poor dethroned monarch looked 
like an object of pity. With an old frock coat and a 
brown hat on, a cane in his hand, he stood outside 
of the group in dismal silence, his sons by his side, 
also his quondam aide-de-camp, Nahpope, and the 
prophet White Cloud. They were not allowed to 
speak or sign the treaty. Nahpope, however, arose, 
and commenced a speech on temperance ! but 
Governor Dodge ordered him to sit down, as out of 
order, which saved him from a more peremptory 
command by Keokuk, who was rising at that moment 
with looks on his face that the devil might have 
shrunk from. 

*' After the treaty was signed, the Governor ad- 
dressed a sensible talk to the chiefs and braves, and 
ended by requesting them to move their families and 
property from this tract within a month, to make 
room for the whites. The chiefs and braves broke 
into a hearty laugh, which one of them explained : 



2o8 Iowa: the First Free State 

* My father, we have to laugh ; we require no time to 
move ; we have left already, and sold our wigwams 
to chemokemons (white men), some for one hundred 
dollars. There are already four hundred chemokemons 
on the land, and more are moving in, and before we 
came away one chemokemon sold his wigwam to 
another for two thousand dollars to build a great 
town.' " 

Meanwhile, a census of the white people in 
the Territory had been taken. It showed a 
population of 6,257 in Demoine County; 4,274 
in Dubuque County; and 11,687 in the four 
counties cast of the Mississippi River ; but no 
one of those counties had so much population 
as Demoine County, so that the latter was 
entitled to a larger representation in the Legis- 
lative Assembly than any other county. The 
whole number of members was thirteen in the 
Council and twenty-six in the House of Rep- 
resentatives. The Governor apportioned to De- 
moine County three members of the Council 
and seven members of the House ; to Dubuque 
County three members of the Council and five 
of the House. An election was held on the 



in the Louisiana Purchase 209 

second Monday of October, when the following 
persons were chosen from west of the Missis- 
sippi, from Demoinc County to the Council : 

Arthur B. Ingliram, born in Washington County, 

Pennsylvania. 
Jeremiah Smith, born in Pickaway County, Ohio. 
Joseph B. Teas, born in Knox County, Tennessee. 

To the House of Representatives : 

Thomas Blair, born in Bourbon County, Kentucky. 

John Box, born in Claiborne County, Tennessee. 

David R. Chance, born in Madison County, Ken- 
tucky. 

Warren L. Jenkins, born in Hardin County, Kentucky. 

Isaac Leffler, born in Washington County, Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Eli Reynolds, born in Washington County, Pennsyl- 
vania. 

George W. Teas, born in White County, Tennessee. 

From Dubuque County, the members of the 
Council were: 

John Foley, born in Waterford County, Ireland. 
Thomas McCraney, born in Delaware County, New 
York. 

14 



2IO Iowa: the First Free State 

Thomas McKnight, born in Augusta, Hampshire 
County, Virginia. 

The members of the House of Representa- 
tives were : 

Hosea T. Camp, born in Jackson County, Georgia. 

Peter Hill Engle, born in Delaware County, Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Hardin Nowlin, born in Monroe County, Illinois. 

Patrick Quigley, born in Londonderry, Ireland. 

Loring Wheeler, born in Cheshire County, New 
Hampshire. 

At the same election George W. Jones was 
elected delegate to Congress. Of 1,849 votes 
polled west of the Mississippi, he received all 
but 79. 

The Legislative Assembly was convened at Bel- 
mont, Iowa County, on the twenty-fifth of Octo- 
ber. Iowa County had then a larger population 
than any of the counties east of the Mississippi, 
and Belmont occupied a commanding position 
near the Platte Mounds upon the thoroughfare 
from Mineral Point to Galena, Illinois. A town 
had been laid out on paper, in the hope that it 



in the Louisiana Purchase 211 

might become the capital of the Territory; a 
plain two-story building was put up, in which 
the Assembly held its sessions from October 25 
to December 9. The Governor administered 
the oath of office to the members. The officers 
of the Council were chosen from the east side 
of the Mississippi; those of the House from the 
west side. Peter H. Engle, of Dubuque, was 
President of the House ; Warner Lewis, of Du- 
buque, Chief Clerk; W. R. Ross, of Burlington, 
Enrolling Clerk. The Governor delivered his 
message to the two Houses jointly assembled. 
His views upon the subject of the Public Lands 
and upon the tenantry system show the spirit 
of the times and are worthy of preservation : 

" The policy pursued by the Government, granting 
the right of preemption to actual settlers, has induced 
many families to emigrate to this Territory. They 
have invested all their means in the improvement 
of this country, and to be placed in competition with 
speculators in the purchase of their homes would 
bring ruin and distress on many famihes. The actual 
settlers have brought this Territory into notice, and 
been the means of producing a large amount in the 



212 Iowa: the First Free State 

treasury of the United States (by payment of rents 
for mining lands) . The pubHc lands were intended 
for the benefit of the actual settlers, who depend 
alone on the soil for support. The policy of granting 
preemption rights to actual settlers has grown with 
the growth and strengthened with the strength of 
the western country. It is wise and just. The 
relation of landlord and tenant should never exist in 
this country ; it is contrary to the spirit of our free 
institutions ; and surely the representatives of a great 
and enlightened people will shield the actual settler 
from the avaricious grasp of the speculator." 

To speak only of the Governor's references 
to the western part of the Territory, he observed 
that the public interest would be greatly pro- 
moted by the location of two land offices west 
of the Mississippi, and he recommended a 
memorial to Congress for the removal of the 
obstructions to navigation in the Mississippi 
River. 

"The annual transportation over these rapids 
amounts to several millions of dollars. The great 
increase in the commerce of the upper Mississippi 
within the last two years, the large amount of lead 
shipped from the lead mines, now sufficient for the 




The First Capitol of Wisconsin Territory, at Belmont 



in the Louisiana Purchase 213 

consumption of the United States, and the increased 
value of the public lands on the shores of the upper 
Mississippi, where towns are building on the most 
eligible situations, give the citizens of this Territory 
strong claims on their Government." 

The most exciting question before the As- 
sembly was the location of the seat of govern- 
ment. In expectation that the Territory would 
continue to extend over both sides of the 
Mississippi for an indefinite period, many an- 
ticipated that its permanent capital would be 
located on the banks of the great river. Cass- 
ville, on the east side, and Peru and Dubuque 
and Bellevue on the west side, put in their 
claims. But as the surprising growth of the 
country west of the Mississippi suggested the 
probability of a division of the Territory, a 
central situation between Lake Michigan and 
the Mississippi at the Four Lakes was chosen, 
and Madison made the capital, with a proviso 
under which the second session and also a 
special session of the First Legislative Assembly 
of Wisconsin Territory were held in Demoine 
County, at Burlington. All the members from 



214 Iowa: the First Free State 

this county voted for the measure; all the 
members from Dubuque County voted against 
it. There were charges of bargaining and cor- 
ruption. David R. Chance said: 

" I was raised in the wilds of Illinois, and used to 
wear a leather hunting shirt, and sleep under a 
buffalo rug. I was educated in the woods. The 
early part of my Hfe was spent in tracking Indians, 
but it is harder tracking these gentlemen. Mr. 
Chairman, we are honest men from Demoine ; we 
are not here to be bought or sold. When I left 
home, my intention was to locate the seat of govern- 
ment in the east of the Mississippi, and divide the 
Territory with the river. If they did not wish to 
divide, I meant to sustain the place selected by the 
Executive, Belmont. We said to the delegation on 
the East, fix your place, and we go for it. I have 
no town property in the Territory of Wisconsin, only 
some marked out in the town of Wapello." 

Peter H. Engle, of Dubuque, Speaker of the 
House, said at the close of the session: 

*' There has been one subject settled of more 
than ordinary interest. It has elicited all the in- 
genuity, tact, and talent of the House in debate, 



in the Louisiana Purchase 215 

and some asperity of feeling. It has been a measure 
of such absorbing interest as to color in a degree 
the other proceedings of this body. I have been 
in the minority on this question; my votes will be 
found on the side of those who ardently resisted 
the course that question has taken." 

At this session, Demoine County vi^as divided 
into the counties of Lee, Van Buren, Des 
Moines, Henry, Louisa, Muscatine, and Cook. 
With the exception of the last, these counties 
remain as thus constituted, with some change 
of boundaries. Cook County was attached to 
Muscatine County for judicial purposes. It was 
named for Ira Cook, an early settler, whose 
sons, Ebenezer and John P., came to honor 
among the public men of Iowa. A portion of 
it, with a portion of the original county of 
Dubuque, was made a new county in 1837, 

under the name of Scott. 

The Assembly constituted Dubuque and 
Demoine counties the second judicial district 
of the Territory, and assigned Judge David 
Irvin to it. He was a native of the Shenandoah 
valley in Virginia. In 1833 he was appointed 



2i6 Iowa: the First Free State 

one of the judges of the Territorial Court of 
Michigan, and assigned to the western district. 
He held court at Mackinaw, at Green Bay, 
and at Mineral Point. His assignment to the 
counties west of the Mississippi River made him 
the first United States judge in what is now 
Iowa. He held court in Demoine County, at 
Burlington, in February, 1837; in Van Buren 
County, at Farmington, in March ; in Dubuque 
County, in May; in Lee County, at Fort 
Madison, in September. He admitted James 
W. Grimes to the bar at Burlington, and in 
April, 1838, appointed Charles Mason, Prose- 
cuting Attorney, pro tem.y for Van Buren County. 
The Chief Justice of Wisconsin Territory, 
Charles Dunn, held the first term of court in 
Jackson County, at Bellevue, June, 1838. 

Three banks were incorporated at this ses- 
sion; the Miners Bank of Dubuque, the Bank 
of Mineral Point, the Bank of Milwaukee; all 
of which became bankrupt, creating a prejudice 
against banks, which led the people of Iowa 
to prohibit them in the State constitution they 
adopted in 1846. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 217 

In the summer of 1837, Governor Dodge 
held a council with chiefs of the Chippewa and 
Sioux nations at Fort Snelling, to promote 
peace and friendship between those tribes, 
which were in constant feuds and wars with 
one another, and to procure from them cessions 
of land. The young braves of the two tribes 
joined in sports and ball-games on the plain 
outside the fort. A valuable cession of pine 
lands in the St. Croix valley was secured from 
the Chippewas, and a deputation of Sioux pro- 
ceeded to Washington and concluded a treaty 
by which they ceded their lands east of the 
Mississippi to the United States. At the same 
time deputations of Winnebago and Sac and 
Fox chiefs went to Washington and con- 
cluded treaties, by which the Winnebagoes 
ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi, 
and agreed to remove to the neutral ground 
on the west side; and the Sacs and Foxes 
ceded a million and a quarter acres of land 
west of and adjoining the Black Hawk Purchase. 

Keokuk was at the head of the Sac and Fox 
deputation with twenty-two other chiefs. Black 



21 8 Iowa: the First Free State 

Hawk accompanied them, not as having any 
authority, but lest, if left at home, he might be 
restless and make^disturbance. After the treaty 
they visited some of the principal cities. At 
Boston they received an ovation. They were 
welcomed by the Mayor of the city and the 
Governor of the State. They held a levee in 
Faneuil Hall for the ladies, an immense con- 
course of whom greeted them in the old 
** cradle of Hberty." In the afternoon they 
were escorted by the Lancers to the State 
House, where Governor Everett addressed 
them: 

*' Chiefs and warriors of the Sac and Fox tribes, 
you are welcome to our hall of council. You have 
come a far way from your home in the West to see 
your white brothers. We are glad to take you by 
the hand. Our travellers have told us of you. We 
are glad to see you with our own eyes. 

"We are called the Massachusetts. It is the 
name of the red men who once lived here. In 
former times, the red man's wigwam stood in these 
fields ; his council fires were kindled on this spot. 

"When our fathers came over the great water, 



in the Louisiana Purchase 219 

they were a small band. The red man stood on 
the rock by the sea side. He might have pushed 
them into the water, but he took hold of their hands, 
and said, ' Welcome, white men.' Our fathers were 
hungry, and the red man gave them corn and 
venison. Our fathers were cold; the red man 
spread his blanket over them, and made them warm. 
Our faces are pale ; yours are red ; but our hearts 

are alike. 

" We are now grown great and powerful, but we 
remember the kindness of the red men to our 

fathers. 

" Brothers, you dwell between the Mississippi and 
the Missouri; they are mighty streams; they have 
mighty arms : one stretches out to the east ; the 
other away west to the Rocky Mountains. But they 
make one river, and run together to the sea. 
Brothers, you dwell in the west, and we in the east ; 
but we are one family. 

" Brothers, as you passed through the hall below, 
you stopped to look at the image of our father 
Washington. It is a cold stone, and cannot speak 
to you. But our great father loved his red children, 
and bade us love them. His words have made a 
great print in our hearts, like the step of a buffalo 
on the prairies. 



220 Iowa: the First Free State 

" Brothers, I make you a short talk, and once 
more I bid you welcome to our council hall." 

Keokuk rose in reply, and, after shaking 
hands with the Governor and his aides, spoke 
in an animated manner, holding his staff, and 
shifting it with graceful gestures from hand to 
hand: 

" Keokuk and his chiefs are much pleased to 
shake hands with the Governor and his braves. The 
Great Spirit has made both of us, though your color 
is ^white and mine is red. The only difference I 
find is, He made you speak one language, and me 
another. He made the same sky above our heads 
for both. He gave us hands to take each other by, 
and eyes to see each other. 

" I am happy to say before I die, that I have been 
in this house where my fathers and your fathers used 
to speak together, as we do now. I hope the Great 
Spirit is pleased with this sight, and will keep the 
white and red men friends. I hope He now sees us, 
and hears our hearts beat kindly to each other. I 
take my friends by the hand, and pray the Great 
Spirit to give them all a blessing." 

Appanoose took the Governor by the hand 
and said : 



in the Louisiana Purchase 221 

" Where we live beyond the Mississippi, my people 
call me a very great man. It is a great day that the 
sun shines upon, when two such great men take each 
other by the hand." 

As Governor Everett nodded assent, the 
audience broke out in rounds of applause. 
After these ceremonies, the Indians gave a war 
dance upon the Common before thousands of 
spectators. A lad of fourteen was there, and 
long afterwards, having gained a high name 
among American historians, he recalled the 
scene, and spoke of " the delight of the boy 
spectators, of whom I was one." * In the 
evening, Major Beach took them to a theatre 
where Edwin Forrest was playing. In an ex- 
citing scene of the drama, where one falls 
dying, the Indians burst out into a war-whoop, 
frightening the women and children. A 
moment later, the audience applauded the 
whole scene to the echo, for both the Indians 
and the actor. 

As the Sacs and Foxes yielded up a portion 
of their lands to advancing civilization, the 

* Francis Parkman. " Half Century of Conflict," i., 333. 



222 Iowa: the First Free State 

settlement of the country went forward rapidly. 
The rich and fertile soil, the salubrity of the 
climate, and the opportunity to acquire land 
and make a home, attracted people from every 
part of the United States and from Europe. 
The settlers relied upon their own right arms 
and upon the preemption laws to make them 
secure in their claims, and save them from the 
grasp of speculators. The Legislative Assem- 
bly in a petition to Congress joined with 
Governor Dodge in deprecating the relation 
of landlord and tenant, and a moneyed aristoc- 
racy, as *' dangerous to liberty." A pioneer 
of the period gave these reminiscences half a 
century afterwards: 

" We took our land by a club law, of which I am 
proud; as I was a judge of that law, and the results 
were as good and near justice as any that have ever 
been enforced in the State. We organized courts 
and tried cases without lawyers, and the decisions 
were final, fatal, and eternal. Camping in the groves 
that fringed the water-courses, our pioneers lived in 
cabins made of logs uncleaned of their bark, with 
doors made of split clapboards, and greased paper 



in the Louisiana Purchase 223 

for windows. Nothing daunted, they saw promise 
ahead, and willing hearts and working hands wasted 
no time. Kindred circumstances begat kindly, social 
relations, and no newcomer, when ready to raise 
his rude cabin home, failed to find strong hands to 
give him the needed lift. Then followed the simple 
spread of coffee and good cheer, more enjoyable 
than a royal banquet, or any fashionable luncheon 
that modern society contrives." * 

Charles Mason, who came to Demoine 
County in February, 1837, ^^d was appointed 
Chief Justice of Iowa Territory the next year, 
said at an Old Settlers' Celebration in Burling- 
ton, June 2, 1858: 

" The inhabitants, destitute of titles to their lands, 
being without the law in this respect, became a law 
unto themselves ; and I have never known justice to 
be meted out with more strict impartiality, or 
tempered with more genuine equity." 

The second session of the Legislative Assem- 
bly convened at Burlington, November 6, 1837, 
in a building erected for the purpose by 

* Alfred Hebard (Yale, 1832). " Iowa Pioneer Law- 
Makers' Reunions," 1886- 1889, PP- 33> 59- 



224 Iowa: the First Free State 

Jeremiah Smith, an enterprising citizen of the 
town, and member of the House. He had 
given assurance to the Assembly at its first 
session that he would provide a suitable build- 
ing for the next session. It stood on Front 
Street, facing the Mississippi, between Colum- 
bia and Court streets, and was occupied by 
the Assembly until destroyed by fire on a cold 
night, December 13, 1837. Accommodations 
were afterwards provided in small buildings 
that stood on the southeast and northwest 
corners of Main and Columbia streets, opposite 
the present court house of Des Moines County. 
Arthur B. Inghram was President of the Coun- 
cil ; he had been a member of the Virginia 
Legislature ; Isaac Leffler was Speaker of the 
House ; both were of Demoine County. This 
was the first meeting of a legislative body in 
what is now Iowa. In his message the Gover- 
nor again enforced his views in favor of the 
right of preemption by settlers on the public 
lands : 

"The occupants of the public lands have emi- 
grated to this Territory under the belief that the 




John C. Calhoun 



in the Louisiana Purchase 225 

same privileges would be extended to them that had 
been to others. They are the pioneers of the West, 
who are rapidly extending the settlements ; they are 
distinguished for their industry, enterprise, and 
attachment to the repubUcan institutions of this 
country, and every consideration of justice and 
humanity calls for their protection. The lot of the 
settlers has been one of hardship, privation, and 
toil, exposed to the dangers of savage warfare, and 
the diseases incident to the settlement of a new 
country. They have built towns, now the seats of 
civilization and refinement, where Indian wigwams 
stood smoking four years ago. They have explored 
and opened the most valuable lead mines that have 
been discovered in the United States. 

"Land was the immediate gift of God to man, 
and was designed for cultivation and improvement, 
and should cease to be an object of speculation. 
The proper policy of the Government would be to 
reduce the price of the public lands, and sell them 
to the actual settler alone. Should Congress make 
no provision for the occupants of the public lands, 
and they be deprived of their homes, either by the 
Government, or by speculators who might purchase 
them at a public sale, it will produce a state of 
things greatly to be regretted. The people will 

never submit to be driven from their homes by the 

IS 



226 Iowa: the First Free State 

land speculator. Congress having for many years 
granted the right of preemption to the actual settler, 
that policy should not now be changed." 

With reference to the Indians on the frontier 
the Governor said : 

"They are now in a state of peace, but such is 
the restless disposition of all Indians that it is 
difficult to determine when they will commence 
their attacks on our frontier inhabitants. This is 
the proper time to make the necessary preparations 
to preserve the peace that now exists with them. 
From the great extent of the frontiers, and the 
numerous Indians on our borders, it is important 
to the inhabitants, that protection be afforded them 
by the Government, which can only be done by 
having a mounted force stationed at some suitable 
point on the upper Mississippi, in advance of our 
most exposed settlements. Two hundred mounted 
troops would be sufficient to range the country from 
the Mississippi to the Cedar, Iowa, and Des Moines 
rivers. This movement would be a direct check on 
the Indians who might be at war with each other." 

The Governor in his message referred to the 
claim of the State of Missouri, that " the rapids 
of the River Des Moines," mentioned in the 



in the Louisiana Purchase 227 

Constitution of that State, adopted in 1820, for 
making a point in its northern boundary, meant 
rapids in the Des Moines River, at Keosauqua. 
On the other hand, the Governor stated that 
while there were rapids in the Des Moines 
River for more than a hundred miles above its 
mouth, there were none in that river known or 
designated in 1820 as "the rapids of the River 
Des Moines," but that among the members of 
the Convention who fo,rmed the Constitution, 
and among all who were acquainted at that 
period with the names and localities of the 
country, " the rapids of the river Des Moines " 
meant the rapids in the Mississippi, terminating 
near the mouth of the river Des Moines. The 
claim of Missouri led to feuds and broils, 
to conflicts of jurisdiction, cases of imprison- 
ment, and the calling out of militia on both 
sides. The strip in question was named " The 
Dispute." People from Missouri settled upon 
it with slaves. Other settlers supposed them- 
selves upon free soil. The extent of the Half 
Breed Tract was also at issue. With the bound- 
ary line claimed by Missouri, the Tract would 



228 Iowa: the First Free State 

be much enlarged. A keen interest was taken 

by speculators in favor of the Missouri claim. 
After a controversy for years in Congress and 

in the courts, the boundary line was established 

according to the facts stated by Governor 

Dodge, and the United States Supreme Court 

so decided, December, 1848. 

At this session the original County of Du- 
buque was divided, and the counties of Clayton, 
Fayette, Dubuque, Delaware, Buchanan, Jack- 
son, Jones, Linn, Benton, Clinton, Scott, Cedar, 
Johnson, Keokuk, were established, as they 
now remain, with some changes of boundary 
lines. The University of Wisconsin was estab- 
lished at Madison, and charters were given for 
institutions of learning in ten places west of 
the Mississippi. A law of Michigan Territory 
which provided imprisonment for debt was 
repealed. 

The day the Legislature met, an enthusiastic 
convention of citizens from the counties west 
of the Mississippi, then called western Wiscon- 
sin, also met in BurHngton. The people of 
those counties felt that the vast extent of Wis- 



in the Louisiana Purchase 229 

consin Territory made it unwieldy for good 
government, and that their interests required 
the organization of a separate Territory. The 
convention and the Legislature adopted a me- 
morial to Congress asking for it. At public 
meetings in the different counties the names of 
Washington, Jefferson, and Iowa were presented 
for the future Territory. The subject was also 
discussed in the convention, " and after con- 
siderable debating Iowa was decided upon." * 
In Congress, the organization of another Ter- 
ritory met with some opposition from the slave 
States on the ground that it would make another 
free State and imperil " the balance of power." 
Mr. Calhoun was firm and determined in his 
opposition to the organization of another Ter- 
ritory where slavery was prohibited. The 
delegate from Wisconsin Territory, George W. 
Jones, told him that the inhabitants were mainly 
from Missouri, Kentucky, and Illinois, that 
the institutions of the South had nothing to fear 
from them. Mr. Calhoun replied that this state 
of things would not last long, that men from 

* " Annals of Iowa." First Series, vi., 51. 



230 Iowa: the First Free State 

New England, and other States where abolition 
sentiments prevailed, would come in, and drive 
him from power and place. Other Southern 
senators were friendly, and, with the tact and 
skill of which he was master, Mr. Jones found 
an opportunity, when Mr. Calhoun was not in 
the Senate chamber, to have a vote taken in 
that body. An act of Congress to provide a 
separate government for that part of Wisconsin 
Territory west of the Mississippi, under the 
name of the Territory of Iowa, was approved 
by President Van Buren, June 12, and took 
effect July 4, 1838. 

Previously, a census taken in May returned a 
larger population in Wisconsin Territory west 
than east of the Mississippi, — 21,859 west, 
18,149 ^^st. Whereupon the Assembly, which 
had convened at Burhngton in its third session, 
June II, apportioned fourteen members of the 
House to counties west of the Mississippi, and 
twelve to counties east, subject to the division 
of the Territory. This division taking place, 
the apportionment lapsed, and on the news of 
the division reaching Burlington the Legislative 



in the Louisiana Purchase 231 

Assembly of Wisconsin Territory, as originally 
organized, adjourned sine die, June 25. 

The population of western Wisconsin more 
than doubled during the two years that it con- 
stituted a part of Wisconsin Territory. The 
number of established counties increased from 
two to twenty-one. No other two years has 
witnessed an increase of population so large in 
proportion. 

The faithful and energetic administration of 

Governor Dodge won universal appreciation. 

Nowhere was he more highly esteemed than by 

the pioneers west of the Mississippi. James G. 

Edwards, a native of Boston, son of a soldier 

of the Revolution who fought at Bunker Hill, 

founder of the Burlington " Hawk-eye," said : If 

the division of the Territory takes place, we 

hope Governor Dodge will be transferred to 

Iowa. It would be more agreeable to the 

settlers of Iowa to have him for Governor 
than any other man." The executive office in 

Burlington was in a building still standing, the 

Harris House, No. 615 North Main Street. 



232 Iowa: the First Free State 



XII 

THE TERRITORY OF IOWA 
1838-1846 

THE people welcomed the new Government, 
and hailed the Fourth of July with zest as 
also the birthday of Iowa. At Fort Madison, 
the citizens spread a banquet on the river bank. 
Black Hawk's lodge was on Manitou Creek, a 
few miles away, and they invited him to be 
their guest. He came in citizen's dress. An 
oration was delivered by Philip Viele. James 
G. Edwards gave a complimentary toast to 
Black Hawk: 

" ' Our illustrious guest. Black Hawk — may his 
declining years be as calm and serene as his previous 
life has been boisterous and warlike. His attach- 
ment and friendship to his white brethren entitle 
him to a seat at our festive-board.' 

" In response. Black Hawk said : * It has pleased 
the Great Spirit that I am here to-day ; I have eaten 



in the Louisiana Purchase 233 

with my white friends ; the earth is our mother ; we 
are now on it, with the Great Spirit above us ; it is 
good. I hope we are all friends. A few summers 
ago I was fighting against you ; I did wrong, per- 
haps; but that is past; it is buried; let it be for- 
gotten. 

"*Rock River was a beautiful country. I liked 
my towns, my corn-fields, and the home of my peo- 
ple. I fought for it. It is now yours. Keep it, as 
we did. It will produce you good crops. 

" * I thank the Great Spirit that I am now friendly 
with my white brethren. We have eaten together; 
we are friends ; it is His wish and mine. I thank 
you for your friendship. 

" ' I was once a great warrior ; I am now poor. 
Keokuk has been the cause of my present situation ; 
but do not blame him. I am now old. I have 
looked upon the Mississippi since I was a child. I 
have dwelt upon its banks. I love the Great River. 
I look upon it now. I shake hands with you ; and, 
as it is my wish, I hope you are my friends.' " * 

This was the last public appearance of Black 
Hawk. He soon moved into the Indian coun- 
try on the Des Moines River, where had been 

* "Fort Madison Patriot," July ii, 1838. 



2 34 Iowa: the First Free State 

an Iowa village (lowaville). He died there 
on the third of October, 1838, and was buried 
there. The next year his grave was rifled, and 
the body stolen for the purpose of making an 
exhibition of his skeleton. The Indians were 
gone away at the time. Upon their return 
they were greatly incensed, and went to Gov- 
ernor Lucas and reported the outrage. He im- 
mediately took measures to recover the bones, 
and upon obtaining them sent for the Indians, 
who declared themselves satisfied to leave the 
bones in his possession. They were subse- 
quently placed in the Collections of the Iowa 
Historical and Geological Institute at Burling- 
ton, and were consumed in a fire which reduced 
all the Collections of the Institute to ashes, on 
the sixteenth of January, 1853. 

The Iowa tribe of Indians had previously 
removed to the west side of the Missouri River, 
where in October, 1838, they acknowledged 
their cession to the United States of all right 
or interest in lands lying between the Mis- 
sissippi and Missouri rivers, in consideration 
of annuities to be paid them during the exist- 



in the Louisiana Purchase 235 

ence of their tribe. At this time the Sacs and 
Foxes held the central part of what is now the 
State, the Winnebagoes had removed or were 
removing to the northeastern part, the Potta- 
wattamies to the southwestern part, and the 
Sioux roamed over the vast region north to 
the British line. The Sacs and Foxes and 
bands of Sioux continued at war with each 
other. To protect the frontier settlements, and 
prevent Indian disturbances, the Government 
established a few garrisons and forts: one at 
the Sac and Fox Agency, seventy miles west 
of Burlington, subsequently removed to the 
Raccoon Fork (Fort Des Moines), where is 
now the State capital ; one among the Winne- 
bagoes on Turkey River (Fort Atkinson); 
another among the Pottawattamies (Fort Cro- 
ghan), where is now the city of Council Bluflfs. 
The efforts made by the Government to im- 
prove the condition of the Indians by instruc- 
tion in agriculture, and by schools, proved of 
little advantage. The Indians were wedded to 
a savage life. 

Robert Lucas was appointed Governor of the 



236 Iowa: the First Free State 

Territory by President Van Buren. Born in 
Virginia, at nineteen years of age he removed 
with his father, who had emancipated his slaves, 
to the Northwest Territory. He witnessed the 
growth of Ohio from a Territorial condition to 
a great State. After serving in the war of 
1812, he was a member of the Ohio Legislature 
eighteen years, and Governor of the State four 
years. His personal character and long ex- 
perience in public life assured a firm hand in 
the government of the new Territory. Theo- 
dore S. Parvin, then not quite twenty-one years 
of age, a native of New Jersey, accompanied 
the Governor as his private Secretary, and for 
sixty-three years devoted a life of surpassing 
industry to the building up of the State. With 
many varied services in the making of Iowa, he 
joined painstaking care and an ardent zeal for 
the preservation of its history. He was the 
founder of the Masonic Library at Cedar Rap- 
ids, the largest and most valuable Masonic 
library in the world. 

The Governor convened the first Legislative 
Assembly of the Territory at Burlington on the 



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in the Louisiana Purchase 237 

twelfth of November, 1838. The members, 13 in 
the Council, 26 in the House of Representatives, 
had been elected September 10. The sessions 
were held in the Methodist church, afterwards 
called *'01d Zion." It had been built by Wil- 
liam R. Ross. The Council met in the base- 
ment; the House of Representatives in the 
upper story. The members were natives of 
different portions of the United States. The 
prohibition of slavery, which, it had been con- 
tended in Congress, would prevent immigration 
from the Southern States, had not that effect. 
More members of the Assembly were natives of 
those States than of the Northern States. Nine 
were natives of Virginia, eight of Kentucky, two 
of North Carolina, one of Maryland, one of 
Tennessee, twenty-one in all ; four were natives 
of New York, four of Pennsylvania, four of Ohio, 
two of New Hampshire, two of Vermont, one of 
Connecticut, one of Illinois, eighteen in all. 
Jesse B. Browne, a native of Kentucky, was 
president of the Council. He had been a cap- 
tain in the United States dragoons, and was six 
feet and seven inches in height. William H. 



238 Iowa: the First Free State 

Wallace, a native of Ohio, was Speaker of the 
House. The oldest member of the Assembly 
was Arthur Inghram, sixty years of age ; the 
youngest, James W. Grimes, twenty-two. Four- 
teen of the members were under thirty years of 
age ; three of them came to honorable positions 
in the subsequent history of the State. Stephen 
Hempstead was the second Governor of the 
State ; Serranus Clinton Hastings was a member 
of six Territorial legislatures, representative in 
Congress from Iowa, 1846- 1847, Chief Justice of 
Iowa in 1848, and afterwards Chief Justice of 
California; James W. Grimes became the third 
Governor of the State, 1854-185 8, and United 
States Senator, 1 859-1 869. 

The day the members of the Assembly were 
elected, William W. Chapman, a native of Vir- 
ginia, was elected delegate to Congress. He had 
been United States attorney for Wisconsin Terri- 
tory, and law-partner with James W. Grimes. 
He made the journey to Washington in wagons 
and stages as far as Frederick, Maryland. He 
took his seat in the Twenty-fifth Congress, and 
by act of that Congress held a seat in the first 



in the Louisiana Purchase 239 

session of the Twenty-sixth Congress. He pro- 
moted the interests of the Territory by obtain- 
ing appropriations for a military road from 
Dubuque by way of Iowa City to the southern 
boundary, and for a road over the swamp lands 
opposite Burlington, also a grant of five hun- 
dred thousand acres for improvements, after- 
wards devoted to school purposes, and he 
defended the southern boundary line of the 
Territory against the encroachment of the State 
of Missouri. Later, he was a member of the 
Constitutional convention of 1844. In 1847 he 
went over the plains to Oregon, with ox-teams, 
seven months on the road, strong in the faith 
that 54° 40' was the northern boundary of the 
United States upon the Pacific, as it would have 
been had his counsels and efforts prevailed. 

In his first message to the Legislative Assem- 
bly, Governor Lucas declared that the rights, 
privileges, and immunities of the Ordinance of 
1787 belonged to Iowa. He recommended the 
organization of townships, and of school dis- 
tricts, and the support of schools. Denouncing 
gambling and intemperance, he gave notice that 



240 Iowa: the First Free State 

he would appoint no one to office who was 
addicted to those vices. 

With his zeal for good laws, Governor Lucas 
had an overweening confidence in his author- 
ity to shape and direct legislation, and in- 
trenched upon the work of the Legislative 
Assembly. An old man, he distrusted the 
young men who were the leading members of 
the Assembly, and interposed a frequent veto 
upon their action. Both Houses regarded his 
course as a usurpation, and adopted a memorial 
to the President, asking for his removal. Con- 
gress intervened by an act curtailing the Gov- 
ernor's power, and the Governor acknowledged 
it a salutary measure, gratifying to himself. 

The code prepared by the Assembly covered 
the ordinary subjects of legislation. The pre- 
vailing prejudice of the time against colored 
people appeared in ** an act to regulate blacks 
and mulattoes." Remonstrances against it as 
inhuman and unjust were disregarded. Acts 
were passed for the incorporation of seminaries 
of learning and of public libraries. The seat of 
government was established in Johnson County, 



in the Louisiana Purchase 241 

and commissioners were appointed to select the 
site, lay out a town, to be called Iowa City, and 
superintend the erection of pubHc buildings; 
the Assembly to hold its sessions in Burlington 
until the buildings were ready for use. Mr. 
Grimes was chairman of the judiciary committee 
in the House of Representatives, and all the 
laws passed through his hands. Their clearness 
of statement and freedom from ambiguity and 
verbiage were largely due to his revision, in 
which Mr. Hastings, who was a member of the 
committee, assisted. The code was long held 
in honor. Upon the establishment of a pro- 
visional government in Oregon it was made the 
law there, so far as applicable. Pursuant to an 
act of the twenty-eighth General Assembly of 
Iowa, it was reprinted by the Historical Depart- 
ment in the year 1900. 

The Supreme Court consisted of Charles 
Mason, Chief Justice, Joseph Williams and 
Thomas S. Wilson, Associate Judges. They 
held office during the whole life of the Terri- 
tory, and enjoyed universal confidence and 
respect. The earliest and the most important 

16 



242 Iowa: the First Free State 

case that came before the court was that of 
Ralph, a colored man, who was claimed by 
Montgomery, a citizen of Missouri, as his slave. 
By a written agreement Montgomery had per- 
mitted Ralph to come to the Dubuque mines 
to work out the price of his freedom, five 
hundred and fifty dollars, which he was to pay 
with interest from the first day of January, 
1835. Ralph had worked in the mines, but 
earned little more than was needed for his own 
support, and made no payment. In these 
circumstances two kidnappers agreed for one 
hundred dollars to return him to Missouri. 
They secured his arrest as a fugitive slave, and 
the sheriff of Dubuque County delivered him up 
to be taken down the river. A noble-hearted 
Irishman, Alexander Butterworth, ploughing In 
his field, heard of the arrest. He went imme- 
diately to the United States judge of the dis- 
trict, Thomas S. Wilson, for a writ of habeas 
corpus^ and the case was brought before him. 
At his suggestion, in view of the importance of 
the case, it was transferred to the Supreme 
Court of the Territory, at the July term, 1839. 




James W. Grimes, Governor of Iowa, 1854-1858 



in the Louisiana Purchase 243 

"David Rorer, attorney for Ralph, contended that 
slavery was prohibited here by the Missouri Com- 
promise of 1820, and by the Ordinance of 1787, 
extended over the Territory in 1834, that Ralph 
was not a fugitive from service, but here by the 
consent and agreement of his former owner, and 
that the recent act ' to regulate blacks and mulattoes ' 
could not apply to one who came here previous to 
the existence of the Territory that enacted it. 

" The attorneys for Montgomery insisted that 
Ralph was a fugitive slave ; that the Missouri Com- 
promise did not take effect without further legisla- 
tion, was of no binding force, and did not work a 
forfeiture of slave property. 

" The unanimous opinion of the Court was deliv- 
ered by Chief Justice Mason, in substance as 
follows : 

" * When a slave goes with the consent of his 
master to become a permanent resident of a free 
State, he cannot be regarded as a fugitive slave. 

"'The act of 1820 is an entire and final prohibi- 
tion, not requiring future legislation to carry it into 
effect. 

" ' Slave property cannot exist without the ex- 
istence of slavery; the prohibition of the latter 
annihilates the former. The man who after that 
act permitted his slave to become a resident here 



244 Iowa: the First Free State 

cannot exercise ownership over him in this Territory. 
For non-payment of the price of his freedom no 
man in this Territory can be reduced to slavery.' " * 

The case of Ralph was similar to that of 
Dred Scott, in which Chief Justice Taney, of 
the United States Supreme Court, gave an 
opposite decision eighteen years later, declar- 
ing the prohibition of slavery by the act of 
1820 unconstitutional, sustaining the repeal 
of the prohibition under the lead of Stephen 
A. Douglas, opening Kansas to slavery, revers- 
ing the peaceful course of American history, 
bringing on the Civil War. In 1841 Rachel 
Bundy, a colored woman living in Burlington, 
who had been brought there by her former 
master, apprehensive of an effort to take her 
back into slavery, came before Judge Mason, 
and he assured her that she was immune from 
the peril. 

The United States survey of the public lands 
in Iowa, marking them off into townships six 

, * " Iowa Pioneer Law-Makers' Association." 1890. pp. 
87-88. Morris's " Iowa Reports." 1847. pp. 1-7. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 245 

miles square, and into sections of six hundred 
and forty acres each, and into half sections 
and quarter sections, was commenced in the 
fall of 1836. In preparation for the first land 
sales, which took place at Dubuque and 
Burlington in November, 1838, the settlers 
arranged among themselves as to their claims. 
They had an arbitration committee to adjust 
boundaries when necessary. Each township 
made a registry of claims, and chose a repre- 
sentative to attend the land sales and bid off 
the land of each claimant. Ordinarily every> 
thing moved in harmony. It was a fine 
exemplification in a vital matter of carrying 
out a social compact made by the people 
and for the people, without a legal authority 
behind it. All became happy in the con- 
sciousness of security in their lands and homes. 
George W. Jones was the first Surveyor- 
General for Iowa, with his office at Dubuque; 
Augustus C. Dodge the first Register of the 
Burhngton Land District. 

In view of the increasing population of the 
Territory, Governor Lucas once and again in 



246 Iowa: the First Free State 

his messages recommended preparations for 
forming a State government, with the St. 
Peter's and Blue Earth rivers for the northern 
boundary, the Sioux and Missouri rivers for 
the western boundary. By the census of 1840 
the population was 43,112. At the October 
election of that year the people voted down 
the proposal for a State government, 937 for, 
2,907 against it. 

At the same election Augustus C. Dodge 
was elected delegate to Congress. Not yet 
twenty-nine years of age, he took his seat in 
the second session of the Twenty-sixth Con- 
gress, and held the office of delegate for six 
years, and until the admission of the State into 
the Union. A native of St. Genevieve, the 
oldest town on the west bank of the Mississippi, 
he was the first man born in the Louisiana 
Purchase to sit in Congress. In the Twenty- 
seventh Congress his father, Henry Dodge, 
took his seat by his side as delegate from the 
Territory of Wisconsin, the only instance in the 
history of the United States of a father and son 
sitting together in the House of Representatives. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 247 

Later, their experience was similar in the Sen- 
ate, where they were again together, the father 
a Senator from Wisconsin, the son a Senator 
from Iowa. No member of Congress was more 
attentive to the interests of his constituents. 
His services were of great value in securing 
the preemption rights of settlers, extending 
surveys of the public lands, establishing mail 
routes, post offices, and a land office at Iowa 
City, and in obtaining a land grant for the 
purpose of aiding the Territory to improve 
the navigation of the Des Moines River. Con- 
stantly called on for his advice and assistance 
in these and other matters pertaining to the 
private and pubHc welfare of the people of 
the Territory, he promptly responded to every 
call. His correspondence, he said, was larger 
than that of the entire delegation from North 
Carolina, which consisted of nine members. 

The Sacs and Foxes retained their savage 
habits, and refused the lessons in farm-work 
which the Government gave them. When not 
at war with the Sioux, or upon hunting expedi- 
tions, they fell victims to the harpies who sold 



248 Iowa: the First Free State 

them whisky in defiance of the laws of the 
United States and of the Territory. They had 
jealousies and disturbances among themselves 
as to their annuities, whether they should be 
paid to Keokuk and the chiefs, or to heads of 
families. The Legislative Assembly recom- 
mended the latter course, and Governor Lucas 
visited them to persuade them to adopt it. But 
Keokuk's influence was too strong, and he 
continued to enrich himself and live luxuriously 
at the expense of his people. 

When William Henry Harrison became Presi- 
dent, he at once appointed John Chambers 
Governor of Iowa Territory. A native of New 
Jersey, John Chambers had been aide-de-camp 
to General Harrison in the War of 181 2, served 
in the Legislature of Kentucky, and been a 
member of Congress from that State. Versed 
in public afi*airs, and possessing the same ster- 
ling qualities as Robert Lucas, he had the plain 
manners of an American citizen, without official 
consequence. His most important service was 
in negotiating a treaty with the Sacs and Foxes, 
by which they ceded to the United States all 



in the Louisiana Purchase 249 

their remaining lands in Iowa. To gain the 
consent of the Indians to this treaty required 
patience, prudence, and tact. Some efforts had 
failed. The Indians were reluctant to leave. 
They said, "The Great Spirit that made the 
country made the red men, and put them on 
it." But they found the game becoming scarce 
in their hunting expeditions. Great herds of 
buffalo no more darkened the meadows. It was 
hard to get game and furs and skins enough to 
provide for their food and clothing. They were 
falling heavily in debt to the traders. Might it 
not be better for a few thousand Indians, 4,396 
souls, according to Governor Lucas, to leave 
that vast region of more than twelve million 
acres for a reservation of moderate size, which 
the United States would provide for them west 
of the Missouri River, where the money offered 
them would supply all their wants, and keep 
them in comfort and plenty? Gradually, these 
considerations gained weight, and after many 
talks, and a settlement of accounts with the 
traders, the Indians agreed to remove, and take 
the offer of nearly a million dollars to be in- 



250 Iowa: the First Free State 

vested for their benefit. Nothing better could 
be expected. Keokuk was a shrewd manager, 
intent upon a bargain. The Indians agreed to 
remove on or before the first day of May, 1843, 
from the country east of a hne drawn north and 
south from the Painted or Red Rocks on the 
White Breast fork of the Des Moines River, 
and on or before the eleventh day of October, 
1845, from the rest of their lands. The treaty 
was signed by forty-four chiefs, headmen, and 
braves, one-half of them Sacs, one-half Foxes, 
each chief to receive an annuity of five hundred 
dollars. Keokuk was at the head of the Sacs ; 
Powesheik, of the Foxes. The United States 
was to be at the expense of their removal, if 
they removed as they agreed ; otherwise, they 
were to remove at their own expense. The 
treaty was made at the Indian Agency, seven 
miles east of Ottumwa. To-day great railroad 
trains of the Burlington route pass over the 
ground where the treaty was made. Says an 
eye-witness, writing fifty years afterwards: 

" It was a difficult and complicated negotiation, 
and, judged from the standpoint of the present day. 



"X^ 




Augustus C. Dodge 



in the Louisiana Purchase 251 

hardly second in importance to any treaty ever made 
with the red man ; because the large amount of land 
then acquired, though as yet far from being fully 
improved, has developed a food-producing, life- 
sustaining capacity, unsurpassed by any tract of like 
extent on the face of the earth. The bargain was a 
good one for all concerned, especially for the Indians. 
They had borrowed habits from the whites, giving 
rise to wants which the chase and their indolent 
habits could not supply. They needed blankets for 
their braves, and clothes and chintz for their squaws 
and pappooses. It required means to supply these 
wants, and the sale of their lands furnished them. 
Governor Chambers gave them some kindly advice, 
to live peaceably, and especially to engage in in- 
dustrial pursuits. The advice was respectfully listened 
to, but little heeded. The idea that a proud buck, 
in his gaily painted blanket and feathers, should make 
a squaw of himself by delving the earth with a hoe, 
was abhorrent to his hereditary instincts." * 

The Indians generally removed as they 
agreed, only about two hundred remaining 
beyond the allotted time, and they soon left. 

Before the first day of May, 1843, large num- 

* A. Hebard, " Annals of Iowa." Third Series, i., 397. 



252 Iowa: the First Free State 

bers of white people assembled along the bor- 
der, awaiting the hour when they could enter the 
portion of the New Purchase then thrown open. 
Up to that date United States soldiers guarded 
the Indian country from intruders, as ten years 
previously they had guarded the Black Hawk 
Purchase. Eager for the choicest locations, 
some explorers, when the midnight hour struck, 
crossed the border with blazing torches, and 
set stakes, and blazed trees, to mark their 
claims. The rest of the Purchase was guarded 
by United States troops until the time fixed by 
the treaty for the removal of all the Indians, when 
there was another rush for choice locations. 

The occupation of the '* neutral ground " by 
the Winnebagoes proved unfortunate for those 
Indians. They were exposed to disturbances 
by reason of the settlements that pressed up 
close to them, and to the white man's vices and 
greed. They were advised to remove to some 
region where they would be beyond those con- 
taminating influences, either north of the St. 
Peter's River, or west of the Missouri River. 
The Government appointed Colonel William S. 



in the Louisiana Purchase 253 

Harney, a brave and discreet officer of the United 
States Army, to make a treaty with them. He 
held a council with their chiefs on the first day 
of November, 1844, and advised them accord- 
ingly. Their principal chief and orator, Wau- 
kon, said in reply: 

"Brother, you say our Great Father sent you to 
us to buy our country. 

" We do not know what to think of our Great 
Father's sending to us so often to buy our country. 
He seems to think so much of land that he must be 
always looking down to the earth. 

"Brother, you say you have seen many Indians, 
but you have never seen one yet who owns the land. 
The land all belongs to the Great Spirit. He made 
it. He owns it all. It is not the red man's to sell. 

"Brother, the Great Spirit hears us now. He 
always hears us. He heard us when our Great 
Father told us if we would sell him our country on 
the Wisconsin, he would never ask us to sell him 
another country. We brought our Council fires to 
the Mississippi. We came across the great river, 
and built our lodges on the Turkey and the Cedar. 
We have been here but a few days, and you ask us 
to move again. We supposed our Father pitied his 



254 Iowa: the First Free State 

children; but he cannot, or he would not wish so 
often to take our land from us. 

" You ask me, Brother, where the Indians are gone 
who crossed the Mississippi a few years ago. You 
know and we know where they are gone. They are 
gone to the country where the white man can no 
more interfere with them. Wait, Brother, but a few 
years longer, and this little remnant will be gone too ; 
— gone to the Indians' home behind the clouds, and 
then you can have our country without buying it. 

" Brother, we do not know how you estimate the 
value of land. When you bought our land before, 
we do not think we got its value. 

" Brother, I have spoken to you for my nation. 
We do not wish to sell our country. We have but 
one opinion. We never change it." 

The Winnebago chiefs refused to hear any- 
thing further from the commissioner, and 
abruptly broke up the Council. They said, " We 
are in a hurry to get off on our winter hunt. 
The sun is going down. Farewell." 

The capitol at Iowa City was not completed, 
pursuant to previous arrangement, in season for 
the meeting of the Fourth Legislative Assembly, 
December 6, 1841. In the emergency, a public- 



in the Louisiana Purchase 255 

spirited citizen of Iowa City provided a building 
in which the Assembly convened. Another 
year elapsed before a portion of the capitol 
was ready for occupancy by the Fifth Legisla- 
tive Assembly. 

In his first message Governor Chambers 
renewed a recommendation of his predecessor, 
to submit the question of forming a State 
government to the people, and the Assembly so 
ordered. The result showed the people to be 
of the same mind as two years before. Every 
county gave a majority against the measure. 
Later, with an increase of population, and a 
growing ambition to have a full share in the 
Hfe and government of the nation, there was 
a change of sentiment. On another submission 
of the question, in April, 1844, a large majority, 
6,719 to 3,974, voted for a convention to form 
a State constitution. In August seventy-two 
members were elected to the convention. In 
order that there might be means in the Terri- 
torial treasury to defray the expenses of the 
convention, and in confident expectation that 
a State government would be promptly formed 



256 Iowa: the First Free State 

the Sixth Assembly postponed the meeting of 
the Seventh Assembly to May, 1845, when the 
final steps, it was supposed, would be taken to 
put a State government in operation. 

The convention met at Iowa City on the seventh 
of October, 1844, and continued in session until 
the first of November. The expenses of the 
convention amounted to seven thousand eight 
hundred and fifty dollars. Shepherd Leffler, of 
Burlington, was chosen President. Noteworthy 
among the members were Ex-Governor Lucas, 
W. W. Chapman, the first delegate of the Terri- 
tory in Congress, James Clarke, the third Gov- 
ernor of the Territory, Stephen Hempstead, 
Ralph P. Lowe, afterwards Governors of the 
State, Jonathan C. Hall, afterwards an associate 
judge of the Supreme Court of the State, 
James Grant, afterwards judge of the Second 
District of the State, and Gideon T. Bailey, 
a member of the First Legislative Assembly of 
the Territory, the latest survivor of that body, 
his life extending to the fifth day of December, 
1903. 

The general sentiment of the convention was 



in the Louisiana Purchase 257 

in favor of creating a large State, with the Mis- 
souri River the western boundary, and the St. 
Peter's River the northern. An extension to 
include the Falls of St. Anthony was advocated. 
** The State of Iowa," it was said, " cannot have 
too much water power." The boundaries 
settled upon were the Mississippi River on the 
east, the State of Missouri on the south, the 
Missouri River to the mouth of the Sioux River 
on the west, and a direct line drawn from the 
mouth of the Sioux River to the mouth of 
the Watonwa (Blue Earth ) River, thence down 
the St. Peter's River to the Mississippi, on the 
northwest and north. 

Unexpectedly, the question of boundaries 
became the crux of the Constitution, first in 
Congress, afterwards in Iowa, where the people 
were to vote for or against the adoption of the 
Constitution. By misadventure, in haste for 
admission into the Union, the Constitution, and 
a memorial asking for admission into the Union, 
were presented to Congress in December, 1844, 
three months before the people were to vote 
upon the matter, the first Monday of April, 

17 



258 Iowa: the First Free State 

1845. Congress objected to the boundaries 
prescribed in the Constitution as creating too 
large a State. The annexation of Texas was 
then pending, with a proviso for forming four 
additional States out of it. As a counterpoise, 
it was felt that more free States should be 
created, in order to preserve the balance of 
power between the North and the South, Rufus 
Choate, of Massachusetts, said in the Senate: 
" An empire in one region has been added to 
the Union ! Look east, and west, or north, 
and you can find no balance ! " 

In the House of Representatives the larger 
boundaries were supported by the delegate 
from the Territory, A. C. Dodge. Their re- 
duction, so as to make Iowa about the size of 
Ohio, was advocated by members from that 
State. Samuel F. Vinton, who had been 
twenty-two years in Congress, speaking from 
the standpoint of history and enlightened states- 
manship, *' represented in a lucid and cogent 
manner," said Mr. Dodge, "the injury which 
the creation of large States would inflict in a 
political point of view on the Western country, 



in the Louisiana Purchase 259 

and the wrong done the West in times past in 
dividing its territory into overgrown States, 
thereby enabling the Atlantic portion of the 
Union to retain supremacy in the Senate. He 
showed that it was the true interest of the 
people of the Mississippi valley, that the new 
States should be of reasonable dimensions, and 
he appealed to Western members to check 
that legislation which had heretofore deprived 
the West of its due representation in the 
Senate." 

Furthermore, with prophetic vision, — it was 
on the eleventh day of February, 1845, Mr. 
Vinton said : 

"Suppose (if such a supposition be possible) an 
attempt were made to set up a Southern republic, 
blocking up the road to New Orleans, can there be 
any doubt what the West would do ? The law of its 
condition, of its geographical position, would force 
the West to rally to the rescue of the Union. And, 
what must be a cheering and joyous reflection to 
every lover of his country who glories in the great- 
ness of its destiny and sends up his prayers for its 
immortality, this bond of union will accumulate new 



26o Iowa: the First Free State 

force and gain new strength with the increasing 
millions in the West. There never was a nation 
which had such a conservative power as must grow 
up in the heart of this nation. I am one of those 
who have an abiding faith that this great central 
power will be true to its trust. To preserve this 
Union, to make its existence immortal, is the high 
destiny assigned by Providence to this central power. 
If I could, I would fill the public mind there with 
this sacred sentiment, with a firm resolve, to prove 
faithful to this mission to which it is called. I would 
transmit it from father to son to the latest posterity. 
I would make them feel, like the vestal virgins that 
kept the sacred fire, that the high command is upon 
them, to keep the Union, to watch over it, to main- 
tain and defend it for ever." 

The result of the debates in Congress was to 
reduce the boundaries. Congress cut off Iowa 
from the Missouri River, and made a line seven- 
teen degrees and thirty minutes west of Wash- 
ington the western boundary, and the parallel 
of latitude running through the mouth of the 
Blue Earth River the northern boundary. As- 
sent to this reduction of boundaries was made 
a condition of the admission of the State into 




John Chamhers, Governor ok Iowa, 1841-1845 



in the Louisiana Purchase 261 

the Union. When that assent was given, the 
President was to announce the fact, and the 
admission of Iowa into the Union was to be 
considered complete. At this time Florida, a 
slave State, had been waiting seven years to 
have a free State ready to come into the 
Union with it; and, now that Iowa applied for 
admission, the arrangement was made that the two 
States should come into the Union together by 
one and the same act. The bill was approved 
by John Tyler. It was one of his last acts as 
President of the United States. Nothing of 
the kind had been done before in the history 
of the Government, though advocated in the 
case of Missouri and Maine in 1820. In the 
present instance the policy failed; for though 
Florida came immediately into the Union, Iowa 
did not come in. Iowa rejected the condition 
imposed by Congress, and remained a Territory. 
Texas was annexed before Iowa came in. 

When the action of Congress reached Iowa, 
the people of the Territory were thrown into 
embarrassment and confusion, especially the 
politicians. However strong the desire to be 



262 Iowa: the First Free State 

a State, and to come into the Union, the 
question of boundaries overrode those consid- 
erations. It was in vain that Mr. Dodge, writ- 
ing from Washington, told the people that by 
the annexation of Texas five slave States may- 
be added to the Union, that free States of 
moderate dimensions were wanted as a counter- 
balance, and that " we will not be able under 
any circumstances to obtain one square mile 
more than is contained in the boundaries 
adopted by Congress." The people would 
not assent to be cut off from the Missouri River. 
Theodore S. Parvin, Frederic D. Mills, Enoch 
W. Eastman, afterwards Lieutenant Governor 
of the State, with other sagacious citizens, led 
in opposition to the act of Congress. Eastman 
was the author of the inscription upon the 
Iowa stone in the national monument to the 
Father of his Country at Washington. ** Iowa — 
the affections of her people, like the rivers of 
her borders, flow to an inseparable Union." 
As a vote for the Constitution would involve 
assent to the boundaries enacted by Congress, 
the people voted against the Constitution by 



in the Louisiana Purchase 263 

a majority of 996 votes, and the Governor 
announced by proclamation that the Constitu- 
tion was rejected. 

In his message to the Seventh Legislative 
Assembly, which convened on the fifth of May, 
the Governor advised the calling of another 
Constitutional convention. The Assembly, how- 
ever, in chagrin and vexation, passed a law, 
over the Governor's veto, to submit the rejected 
Constitution to another election, with a sophisti- 
cal proviso that '' its ratification was not to be 
construed as an adoption of the boundaries 
proposed by Congress." The people were 
still further confused and mystified. They 
again rejected the Constitution. The vote was 
close, but decisive; 7,235 for, 7,656 against 

John Plumbe, a citizen of Dubuque, was the 
earliest advocate in the United States of a 
railroad to the Pacific. From 1837 ^^ made 
many public addresses, and memorialized Con- 
gress, in favor of the project. In the same 
interest Asa Whitney made an exploration of 
the route from the Mississippi to the Missouri 
River through northern Iowa in the summer of 



264 Iowa: the First Free State 

1845. I^ ^^ account of his tour, in the " New 
York Journal of Commerce," he said: 

" At Prairie du Chien I expected a guide to the 
Missouri, but was disappointed, and at Fort Atkinson, 
fifty miles west of the Mississippi, was disappointed 
again. Thus situated, without a guide, and but one 
laboring man, our number small, seven in all, I felt 
a heavy responsibility in leading the young gentlemen 
with me into probable dangers, and certain hardships 
and fatigues ; — an unknown wilderness before us, 
and probably a savage foe to watch our every step. 
The young men said, * Go on ; we will follow.' 
And they never flinched. They were ready to wade 
through mud, water, and grass, to their necks, with 
our provisions upon their heads, to swim rivers, fell 
trees for bridges, and endure all other fatigues. 

" Before leaving Prairie du Chien, I fixed upon a 
route to the Missouri, and with compass in hand made 
it within five miles of the point started for. We crossed 
Turkey River at Fort Atkinson, thence the different 
branches of the Wapsipinicon and the Cedars to Clear 
Lake, thence northwesterly to a branch of the St. 
Peter's running northeasterly, thence to the Des 
Moines River, which we crossed by felling trees for 
a bridge, thence due west to a number of small, 
beautiful lakes forming the headwaters of the Little 



in the Louisiana Purchase 265 

Sioux, thence across the branches of the Calumet 
(Big Sioux) and Vermilion, then Jacques River, and 
then the grand Missouri, fifteen miles below the Great 
Bend, making a distance of more than five hundred 
miles over the finest country upon the globe, capable 
of sustaining more than three times the population of 
the same size in any other part of the world ; — no 
swamps, no marshes, no flooding of rivers except of 
the Wapsipinicon, and undoubtedly the most healthy 
country in the world. I have never found the atmos- 
phere so pure; the surface is gently rolHng to an 
almost level, undulating enough to let the water off. 
The soil of the wilderness is as rich as it can be ; none 
better. In the whole distance I did not see one acre 
of useless or bad land ; all are covered with the finest 
of grasses for cattle, and, when cured, good hay. The 
farmer will want but the plough, the seed, the scythe, 
and the sickle. As far as the Cedars, are consider- 
able tracts of good timber ; but none beyond to the 
Missouri ; the growth of timber, however, is so natural 
that without the fires, which now spread over the whole 
prairies yearly, consuming everything, in fifteen years 
the whole from river to river would be one dense forest. 
** From the Mississippi to the Missouri the streams 
can be bridged easily, and at small comparative ex- 
pense ; first-rate materials being abundant in the 
bluffs which form their banks." 



266 Iowa: the First Free State 

On the eighteenth of November, 1845, t)y 
appointment of President Polk, James Clarke 
succeeded John Chambers as Governor of the 
Territory. A native of Westmoreland County, 
Pennsylvania, he came to Wisconsin Territory 
in 1836, and established a newspaper, "The 
Belmont Gazette," at Belmont. The next year, 
with the removal of the capital of Wisconsin 
Territory to BurHngton, he removed his paper 
to that place, and changed its name to ** The 
Wisconsin Territorial Gazette and Burlington 
Advertiser," subsequently " The Iowa Territorial 
Gazette." The paper continues to the present 
time, the oldest newspaper now published in 
Iowa. On the twenty-seventh of September, 
1840, Mr. Clarke was married to Miss Christiana 
H. Dodge, daughter of Henry Dodge, Gov- 
ernor of Wisconsin Territory, at her father's 
house in Dodge's Grove, Iowa County, in that 
Territory. 

The Eighth Legislative Assembly of Iowa 
Territory convened on the first day of Decem- 
ber, 1845. It submitted to the people the 
question of another convention to frame a Con- 



in the Louisiana Purchase 267 

stitution. The people voted in favor of holding 
such a convention, which was held on the fourth 
day of May, 1846, and remained in session only 
fifteen days. It consisted of thirty-two mem- 
bers, seven of whom had been members of the 
first convention ; one of them, Enos Lowe, 
M. D., of Burlington, was chosen President. By 
a happy concert of action on the part of leading 
members of the body with the delegate to Con- 
gress, and with the Committee on Territories in 
the House of Representatives, a compromise as 
to boundaries was agreed upon. Congress re- 
pealed its former action, and, in lieu of the 
boundaries it had prescribed, enacted others, 
namely, the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers the 
western boundary, and the parallel of forty-three 
degrees and thirty minutes the northern bound- 
ary. The convention in defining boundaries 
used the same language. Upon the submission 
of the Constitution to the people on the third of 
August, it was adopted, the vote being 9,492 
for, 9,036 against. The vote of the people was 
simultaneous with the action of Congress, which 
President Polk approved August 4. The same 



268 Iowa: the First Free State 

act gave Iowa two members in the House of 
Representatives. Iowa was the first State on 
emerging from a Territory to have more than 
one representative in Congress. The census re- 
turned a population of 102,388 at this time in 
the Territory. 

In 1820 the United States "forever prohib- 
ited slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise 
than in the punishment of crimes," in the terri- 
tory north and west of the State of Missouri. 
'^iP Xb irtysix years afterwards Iowa reaffirmed 
that prohibition, so far as its territory was con- 
cerned, and declared in the same language, that 
*' neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 
unless for the punishment of crimes, shall ever 
be tolerated in this State." To breathe the air 
of freedom, to live where labor was honored, 
and there were no slaves, was the inspiring 
motive, more than any other, which led the 
people of Iowa to make it their home. 

A wise provision of the Constitution made 
the sessions of the General Assembly biennial. 
The Governor was to hold office for four years, 
Judges of the Supreme Court were to be elected 



in the Louisiana Purchase 269 

by the General Assembly for six years, District 
Judges by the people of each District for five 
years. For the first ten years the annual salary 
of the Governor, the Supreme and District 
Judges, was not to exceed one thousand dollars 
each. State debts were prohibited beyond the 
sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or for a 
longer term than twenty years. Debts for 
posterity to pay were reprobated. Banks were 
prohibited. This was original in Iowa. It ex- 
cited much opposition as injurious to commerce 
and trade, and affording no protection against 
the circulation of bills of banks of other States. 
It was the ground of many votes that were cast 
against the adoption of the Constitution. 

During the year 1846 the Territory witnessed 
the exodus of the Mormons from Nauvoo, 
Illinois, wending their way over the prairies in 
long trains of wagons and carts, some halting 
at one station and another, the most encamping 
in Pottawattamie County and building a town they 
called Kanesville, in honor of a sympathizing 
friend, Thomas M. Kane. Here they remained 
until Brigham Young summoned them to Utah 



270 Iowa : the First Free State 

in 1852. The next year the name of the town 
was changed to Council Bluffs. 

During the Mexican War, in response to 
President Polk's call for volunteers, Iowa sent 
three hundred and forty-four of her pioneers into 
the military service. At Kanesville, a Mormon 
battalion was organized, which marched over 
the plains to California. Captain Benjamin S. 
Roberts, of Fort Madison, with his mounted 
riflemen, was the first to enter the City 01 
Mexico and raise the American flag over 
the palace of the Montezumas. Major Frederic 
D. Mills, of Burlington, and Captain Edwin 
Guthrie, of Fort Madison, lost their lives in the 
battles before the City of Mexico. Their names 
were given to new counties, and other coun- 
ties were named in commemoration of battle- 
fields of the war, as Buena Vista, Cerro Gordo, 
and Palo Alto ; or of officers who distinguished 
themselves, as Butler (P. M.), Hardin, Ringgold, 
Taylor (Zachary), Worth. 

In the last year of the territorial life of Iowa 
treaties were concluded with the Winnebagoes 
and the Pottawattamies, by which they agreed 



in the Louisiana Purchase 271 

to remove within two years; the former to 
beyond the St. Peter's River, the latter to lands 
on the Kansas River. Thus Iowa was to be 
relieved of an Indian population, and the whole 
State, with as little waste land as any other equal 
portion of the earth's surface, and with condi- 
tions of climate favorable to health and vigor, 
was opened to civilization, to the hand of 
industry, to the plough and the spade, to the 
planting of homes, to the school and the church, 
to representative government, and to equal laws 
and courts of justice. 



272 Iowa: the First Free State 



XIII 

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE AND 
ADMISSION INTO THE UNION 

1846 

THE first election under the Constitution 
was held on the twenty-sixth of October, 
when State officers, members of the First General 
Assembly, and two representatives to Congress 
were elected. Ansel Briggs was chosen Gov- 
ernor. A native of Vermont, at fourteen years 
of age he came with his parents to Ohio. In 
1838 he removed to Iowa Territory and settled 
at Andrew, Jackson County. A mail contractor, 
he established a stage route between Davenport 
and Dubuque, and from Davenport to Iowa 
City, and was sometimes his own stage-driver. 
His honest ways and plain manners made him 
friends, and he was chosen a member of the 
Fifth Legislative Assembly, and subsequently 
sheriff of Jackson County. Called upon at a 



in the Louisiana Purchase 273 

banquet for a toast, he gave the sentiment : " No 
banks but banks of earth, and they well tilled." 
This happy expression of the popular feeling and 
the fact that Jackson County was the strongest 
Democratic county in the Territory, made him 
a candidate for Governor, and a Democratic 
convention nominated him for the office, upon 
the platform of " opposition to all banking 
institutions of whatever name, nature, or de- 
scription ; and to grants of exclusive privileges 
to corporations ; and in favor of less legislation, 
few laws, strict obedience, short sessions, light 
taxes, no State debt, and tariff for revenue 
only." 

Pursuant to the Constitution, the First Gen- 
eral Assembly was convened on the thirtieth of 
November, and on the third day of December the 
Territorial organization gave way to that of the 
State. The ceremony was without pomp or 
parade. Chief Justice Mason administered the 
oath of office to Governor Briggs. Governor 
Clarke congratulated the Assembly on ** the 
civil revolution in our form of government, 

effected, not through coercion, but by the silent 

18 



274 Iowa: the First Free State 

force of public opinion; and he expressed the 
hope that " with a Constitution containing 
guards against improvidence, and restrictions 
upon class legislation, we may escape the evils 
which have brought ruin and blight upon other 
portions of our country." A man of fine char- 
acter, reserved in his manners, Governor Clarke 
performed the duties of his office with simplicity 
and a quiet dignity, and enjoyed the universal 
respect of his fellow-citizens. His name was 
given to one of the new counties, adjoining that 
which bears the name of the first Governor of 
the Territory. In his brief inaugural Governor 
Briggs cautioned the General Assembly*' against 
hasty and unnecessary legislation." 

The Constitution of the State was presented 
to Congress by the delegate from the Territory 
on the fifteenth of December, and on the twenty- 
eighth of the month President Polk signed the 
bill by which " the State of Iowa was admitted 
and received into the Union." On the follow- 
ing day. Shepherd Leffler and S. C. Hastings 
took their seats in the House of Representatives. 
Eleven days previously, the two Houses of the 



in the Louisiana Purchase 275 

General Assembly met in joint convention to 
elect United States senators, but they fell into 
a dispute over the candidates, which proved 
irreconcilable, and the State had no senators 
in Congress for two years. 

Iowa was the twenty-ninth State of the 
American Union, and the fourth State created 
out of the Louisiana Purchase. Endowed 
prospectively in 1820 with the heritage of free- 
dom, it remained a savage wilderness for 
thirteen years following; after which, in the 
course of another thirteen years, more than a 
hundred thousand American people entered the 
wilderness, and made themselves homes, and 
planted the Commonwealth. The subsequent 
advancement of the State in population and 
wealth, and the rank it has gained among the 
States for the intelligence of the people, and 
for their moral and social order, are familiar 
topics in recent history. Covering but an 
eighteenth part of the Louisiana Purchase, it 
now possesses one-sixth of the population and 
one-third of the taxable property of the thirteen 
States and Territories into which the Purchase 



276 Iowa: the First Free State 

has been divided, with a more general and 
even distribution of wealth than exists else- 
where in the United States or in the world. 
The services of Iowa to the cause of freedom, 
and to the life and greatness of the nation, have 
won honor and fame to the State. It remains 
for other generations to maintain that honor 
and perpetuate that fame to times afar. 



APPENDIX 

THE NAME ''IOWA" 

THE earliest appearance of any form of this 
name is in a letter of Father Louis Andre, 
written from the Bay of Puants (Green Bay), 
April 20, 1676. He says: " This year we have 
among the Puants seven or eight famihes from 
a nation that is neutral between our savages 
(Winnebagoes) and the Nadoessi (Sioux), who 
are at war. They are called Aiaoua, or Mascou- 
teins Nadoessi. Their village, which lies two 
hundred leagues from here toward the west, is 
very large, but poor ; for their greatest wealth 
consists of ox-hides and red calumets. They 
speak the language of the Puants. I preached 
Jesus Christ to them. They live at a distance 
of twelve days' journey beyond the great river 
called Misisipi."* In a list of twenty-six tribes 
that had lived in Wisconsin, John G. Shea 
puts down the Ainovines or " Aio^ais," which he 

* Jesuit Relations (Thwaites Edition), Ix., 203-205. 



278 Appendix 

calls ** the old French spelling to express the 
sound Iowa." He says that " their first abode 
was at the junction of Rock river and the Mis- 
sissippi." Father Zenobe Membre mentions two 
villages of them on the west side of Lake Michi- 
gan (1678- 1 680). Perrot speaks of the Upper 
Iowa river as *' about twelve leagues from the 
Ouisconching, and named for the Ayoes sav- 
ages," and says that he maintained friendly re- 
lations with them when he established himself 
on the Mississippi (1685). Other forms of the 
name, Aiouez, Ayavois, Ayouez, Yoais, appear 
in ''Documents of the French Regime." In 
Gorrell's Journal the name is Avoy.* George 
Rogers Clark, writing to Patrick Henry, Gov- 
ernor of Virginia, from Kaskaskia, April 29, 
1779, mentions the " lowaas," among ''Indians 
who are against us."t The modern spelling, 
" Iowa," appears in The American Gazetteer^ by 
Jedidiah Morse, 1804, on a "map of North 
America, showing all the New Discoveries," and 
on a " map of the Northern parts of the United 
States," and in the following statement: — 

*^ Iowa, a river of Louisiana, which runs S.E. into 
the Mississippi in N lat 41 5, sixty-one miles above 

* Wis. Hist. Coll., i., 32, 34, 38 ; iii., 126-127 ; xvi., 15, et passim. 
t Life of P. Hettry, by William Wirt Henry, iii., 236. 



Appendix 279 

the Iowa rapids, where on the E. side of the river 
is the Lower Iowa Town, which 20 years ago could 
furnish 300 warriors. The Upper Iowa Town is 
about 15 miles below the mouth of the river, on the 
E. side of the Mississippi, and could formerly furnish 
400 warriors." 

In the first treaty made by the United States 
with these Indians, 181 5, and in six subsequent 
treaties, to October 19, 1838, the spelling is 
always loway. Thomas L. McKenney's History 
of the Indian Tribes in North America uses the 
same spelling. The first application of '' Iowa " 
to a civil organization was made by Henry R. 
Schoolcraft, as explained pp. 177-178, supra. 



NOTES ON SOME OF THE 
ILLUSTRATIONS 

Frontispiece and page 80. Zebulon M. Pike's 
portrait and map are from Elliott Coues's edition 
of his *' Expeditions," 1895. 

Page 20. Marquette's Map is an extract from 
an " Autograph map of the Mississippi river 
drawn by Father Marquette," published in fac- 
simile in ''Discovery and Exploration of the Mis- 
sissippi Valley," by John Gilmary Shea, 1852. 



28o Appendix 

Page 34. Captain Jonathan Carver had served 
with the Colonial troops in the French and In- 
dian wars, and was at the taking of Quebec, 
1759. He said, "To make that vast acquisition 
of territory gained by the British from the 
French advantageous to us, it appeared to me 
necessary that the Government should be ac- 
quainted with the state of the dominions they 
were now possessed of, and to this purpose I 
determined to explore the most unknown parts 
of them." It was upon this exploring tour, 
following the route of Marquette ninety-seven 
years before, that Carver, entering the Missis- 
sippi from the Wisconsin River, beheld the bluffs 
of Iowa. 

Page 42. The Map of Dubuque's claim is 
reduced from a " Sketch of the Plat," in the 
Recorder's office, St. Louis, Missouri. Annals 
of Iowa, Third Series, v., 328. 

Page 62. The Floyd Memorial is one hun- 
dred feet high, and corresponds in its propor- 
tions to an Egyptian obelisk. It is built of 
Kettle River (Minnesota) sandstone, and was 
erected under the supervision of Hiram Martin 
Chittenden, Captain Corps of Engineers, U. S. 
Army. 

Page no. The portrait of Black Hawk is 



Appendix 281 

from F. B. Wilkie's " Davenport, Past and Pres- 
ent," 1858. 

Page 128. Mahaska (White Cloud) was killed 
by an Omaha Indian on the Nodaway, 1834. 
His son, of the same name, said, '* I have never 
shed blood, have not taken a scalp. I believe 
the Great Spirit is angry with men who shed 
innocent blood. I will live in peace." He him- 
self held a plow, and encouraged his people in 
farming, and the squaws in spinning and weav- 
ing. His mother, Rantchewaime, was killed, her 
horse stumbling on the edge of a precipice, 
when he was four years old. In the winter of 
1836-7 he visited Washington, and recognized 
her portrait in the Indian Gallery. Subsequently, 
he became dissolute, overcome by whisky, tn 
explaining the migratory habit of the tribe, one 
of the chiefs said, "■ It is not the will of the 
Great Spirit that we should be stationary, but 
travel from place to place." 

'' History of Indian Tribes," by T. L. McKen- 
ney, ii., 81-100, 174-184; by H. R. Schoolcraft, 
iii., 256-266. 

Page 140. Keokuk, 1 780-1 848, was born on 
Rock River, lUinois, died in Franklin County, 
Kansas, and was buried there. In 1883 ^^is 
remains were removed to Keokuk, Iowa, and 



282 Appendix 

interred in Rand Park in that city, and a monu- 
ment erected over them. The portrait is from 
F. B. Wilkie's " Davenport, Past and Present," 
1858. 

Page 182. We are indebted to the courtesy 
of Mr. Albert N. Harbert, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 
for the portrait of Albert M. Lea. 

Page 200. The Commission of Henry Dodge 
is preserved in the Historical Department of 
Iowa, at Des Moines, Charles Aldrich, Curator. 
It is one of nineteen commissions which Gov- 
ernor Dodge had preserved in a package he 
himself marked, " Commissions in the Service 
of My Country." They embrace the signatures 
of six Presidents of the United States, — Madi- 
son, Monroe, J. Q. Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, 
Polk, — and of other distinguished men. It is 
doubtful if there is another collection of equal 
interest and value in the documentary history 
of the West. Iowa Historical Record, v., 338- 
340. 

Page 206. Henry Dodge's portrait was 
painted by George Catlin, 1834. Iowa Histori- 
cal Record, v., 337; vii., 118. 



INDEX 



A JOUWA (Iowa) Indians, on 

Missouri River, 62. 
Albert Lea, lake, 184. 
Allamakee County, 35. 
American Fur Company, 125, 

169-171. 
Arkansas, admitted to Union, 

194- 

Arkansaw, name given to Terri- 
tory, 113. 

Astor, John Jacob, loi. 

D AILEY, Gideon T., 256. 

^ Banks incorporated in Wis- 
consin Territory, 216 ; pro- 
hibited in Iowa, 216, 269. 

Bellevue, Jackson County, 79, 216. 

"Belmont Gazette, The," 266. 

Belmont, Iowa County, Legisla- 
tive Assembly at, 210. 

Benton County formed, 228. 

Benton, Thomas H., no, 116. 

Black Hawk, 85, 95, 96, 100, loi, 
125, 128, 143, H5-156, 158, 
159, 161-166. 

"Black Hawk Purchase, The," 

Black Hawk War. 152, 153. 
Blair, Thomas, 209. 
Blondeau, Maurice, 171. 
Boone, Daniel, 40. 
Boone's Lickers, 93, 94. 
Boundary established between 

Missouri and Iowa, 228. 
Box, John, 209. 
Briggs, Ansel, 272. 
British Band, 100. 
British influence over Indians, 

38, 98. 
Browne, Jesse B., 237. 



Buchanan County formed, 228. 

Buena Vista County named, 270. 

Burlington, flag run up, 176 ; 
streets surveyed, 180; first 
postmaster appointed, 180 ; 
visited by Albert Lea, 185 ; 
second and third session of 
First Legislative Assembly of 
Wisconsin Territory, and First, 
Second and Third Legislative 
Assemblies of Iowa Territory 
at, 180, 223, 230, 236, 241. 

Burlington *' Hawk- Eye," 231. 

Butler County named, 270. 

Butterworth, Alexander, 242. 

(^ALHOUN, Mr., opposed or- 
^ ganization of Iowa Terri- 
tory, 229, 230. 
Camp des Moines established, 

181; visited by Catlin, 188. 
Camp, Hosea T., 210. 
Carroll, Nicholas, 175. 
Carver, Jonathan, 27. 
Cass, Governor, 129. 
Catfish Creek, lead discovered 

in, 18; mines worked, 41, 42, 

142. 
Catlin, George, 63, 187-191, 204, 

206. 
Cedar County formed, 228. 
Census in Iowa Territory, 208, 

268. 
Cerro Gordo County named, 270. 
Chambers, John, Governor of 

Iowa Territory, 248, 251, 255, 

263, 266. 
Chance, David R., 209. 
Chapman, William W., 238, 239, 

256. 



284 



Index 



Chariton River, 102. 
Charles, John H., 63. 
Chicago massacre, 89. 
Chicago, treaty made at, 154. 
Chicaqua (Chicago), 183. 
Clark, Governor William, 88, 

Clarke County named, 274. 

Clarke, James, 256, 266, 273. 

Clay, Henry, 109. 

Clayton County, first settlement 
in, 17 ; formed, 228. 

Clinton County formed, 228. 

Cobb, Thomas W., on slavery, 
105, 106. 

Code drawn up by Territorial 
Assembly, 240, 241. 

Congress considered Iowa bound- 
aries, 257-260. 

**' Conquest, The," quotation 
from, 129-136. 

Constitution of Iowa as fixed by 
Congress, 268, 269. 

Convention to form State govern- 
ment, 256. 

Cook County formed, 215; at- 
tached to Muscatine County, 
215. 

Cook, Ebenezer and John P., 
sons of Ira, 215. 

Council Bluff, or Bluffs, Lewis 
and Clark at, 62 ; " Western 
Engineer " at, 102. 

Council Bluffs, Kanesville named, 
270. 

Courts and court officers in Iowa, 
1837-8, 216. 

Crapo Park, Burlington, 78. 

Criminal case tried in unorgan- 
ized territory, 193. 

nAVENPORT, George, 164, 
204. 

Davenport visited by Pike, 79 ; 
site of, 141, 157, 196; Indian 
village on site of, 141 ; demon- 
stration by Indians at, 157; 
Sac and Fox council at, 202. 

Davenport, Colonel William, 169. 

Delaware County formed, 228. 



Demoine County organized, 177; 
first officers of, 179; represen- 
tation of, 191, 192 ; popula- 
tion of, 208 ; Council members, 
209; divided, 215 ; judicial dis- 
trict, 215, 216. 

Des Moines, Camp, iSi. 

Des Moines City site, 185 ; 
fort established at; 235. 

Des iNIoines County formed, 21:;. 

Des Moines River, rapids of, 
121, 226, 227; settlements 
upon, 81, 125, 167, 204 ; ex- 
plored by Albert Lea, 184, 185; 
visited by George Catlin, 188, 
189. 

" Dispute, The," 227. 

District of Louisiana, formation 
of, 70. 

District of St. Charles, 73. 

Dodge, Augustus C, Land Reg- 
ister, 245, 246 ; delegate to 
Congress, 246, 247. 

Dodge, Miss Christiana H., 266. 

Dodge, Henry, yy, 81, 92-94, 99, 
121, 152, iSi, 200-203, 205, 
207, 231 ; and Augustus C, 
246, 247. 

Dodge, Israel, 40. 

Douglas, S. A., 120, 123, 244. 

Dred Scott Case, 244. 

Dubuque, city of, 86, 173, 176, 
187, 200. 

Dubuque County organized, 177; 
representation of, 191 ; popu- 
lation of, 208 ; judicial district, 
215, 216; divided, 228. 

Dubuque, Julien, 41-45, 79, 86, 
iSS. 

Dubuque mines worked by Illinois 
miners, 142, 143, 158. 

"Dubuque Visitor, The," 179. 

Du Luth joins Hennepin, 15. 

Dye, Eva Emery, quotation from, 
129-136. 

pASTMAN, Enoch W., 262. 
Eighth Legislative Assembly, 
266. 
Engle, Peter Hill, 210, 211, 214. 



Index 



285 



CARMINGTON, Van Buren 
County, court held at, 216. 
Farnham, Russell, 170. 
Fayette County formed, 228. 
First deed given in Iowa, 47. 
First flags in 1834 floated over 

Iowa, 175, 176. 
First General Assembly, 273. 
First legislative body in present 

Iowa, 224. 
First newspaper in Iowa, 179. 
First regular election in, 191. 
First school taught in Iowa, 171. 
First steamboat entered Missouri 

River, 102. 
First steamboat reached St. Louis, 

102. 
First United States judge in 

Iowa, 2i6. 
First white settlement in Iowa, 

42. 
Flint Creek, Indians on, 143. 
Flint Hills (Burlington), 158, 179, 

180. 
Florida admitted into Union, 

261. 
Floyd, Sergeant Charles, 62, 

63- 
Floyd Memorial Association, 63. 
Foley, John, 209. 
Fort Atkinson established by gov- 
ernment, 235. 
Croghan, fort established 

by government, 235. 
Crawford, 140. 
Madison, 84, 85, 90-92, 

158, 216, 232. 
Orleans, 32. 

Snelling, defences built at, 
102 ; Indian council at, 
217. 
St. Nicolas, 17. 
Fourth Legislative Assembly, 
254. 



QALENA, Illinois, miners 
prospect at Dubuque, 142. 
Giard, Basil, 45, 47; settlement 
of, 81. 



Governor of Iowa Territory, 
duties of, 201. 

Grant, James, 256. 

Green Bay, Stockbridge Indians 
Hving near, 164; last legisla- 
tive Council of Michigan Ter- 
ritory held at, 192. 

Grimes, James W., 203, 238. 

Guthrie County named, 270. 

Guthrie, Edwin, of Fort Mad- 
ison, 270. 



j^ALF-B REEDS, questions 
arose concerning, 129, 137. 
Hall, Jonathan C, 256. 
Hamilton, William Schuyler, 192, 

195. 
Hardin County named, 270. 
Harney, William S., 253. 
Harris House, Burlington, 231. 
Harrison, William Henry, 58, 71, 

74. 

Hastings, Serranus C, 238, 274. 

Hebard, Alfred, 222, 223, 250, 
251. 

Hempstead, Stephen, second gov- 
ernor of Iowa, 238, 256. 

Hennepin first passed northeast 
part of State, 15. 

Henry County formed, 215. 

Horner, John S., 192, 193. 



ILLINOIS admitted into the 
Union, 103, 

Imprisonment for debt abolished 
in Wisconsin Territory, 228. 

Indiana Territory, 70, 71. 

Indian councils, at Prairie du 
Chien, 42 ; with Governor 
Lewis, 82 ; at Portage des 
Sioux, 99; at Prairie du Chien, 
129-137; 144,145; at Chicago, 
154; with U. S. Commission- 
ers, 155 ; with Governor Dodge, 
203-208; at Fort Snelling, 217. 

Indian schools proposed, 126. 

Indian trade, by U. S. agents, es- 
tablished, 75, 82-85; ended 



286 



Index 



124; monopolized by private 
companies, loi. 

Indians in Iowa, 60, 81, 125, 127, 
128. 

Inghram, Arthur B., 209, 224, 
238. 

Iowa, State and Territory, re- 
ceivfed name, 22 ; imder Spanish 
rule, 36, 37 ; first white settle- 
ment, 42; hunting-grounds for 
Indians, 100; divided among 
tribes, 136, 137; first school in, 
171; settled without slavery, 
175; conditions of white set- 
tlement, 178, 180; described 
by Albert Lea^ 181-186, 196- 
199, by George Catlin, 187-191 ; 
first regular election, 191 ; rival 
cities claim capital, 195, 196; 
first governor of Territory, 200 ; 
census taken, 208 ; first legis- 
lative body met, 224 ; name 
chosen, 229 ; Territorial govern- 
ment given, 230 ; State govern- 
ment defeated by the people, 
246; proposed State boundaries, 
246; State government voted 
by people, 255 ; State bound- 
aries proposed, 257; refused 
conditions of Congress, 261 ; 
explored with view to railroad, 
264, 265 ; oldest newspaper, 
266; State boundaries agreed 
upon, 267; slavery prohibited, 
26S ; census, 268; State gov- 
ernment fixed upon, 268, 269; 
represented in Mexican War, 
270 ; State government in- 
augurated, 273; poUcy of first 
governor, 273 ; in the Union, 
274; dispute over election of 
U. S. Senators, 275 ; twenty- 
ninth State in the Union, 
275. 

Iowa City laid out, 241 ; capitol 
at, 254, 255. 

Iowa County, 177, 178. 

" Iowa District, The," 178. 

Iowa River, settlements on, 165, 
203, 204. 



" Iowa Territorial Gazette, The," 

266. 
lowaville, Indian attack at, 125 ; 

scene of Black Hawk's death, 

234- 
Irvin, Judge David, 178, 194, 215. 
Irving, Washington, described 

Black Hawk, 156. 

JACKSON County formed, 228. 

Jenkins, Warren L., 209. 
Jennings, Berryman, 171. 
Johnson County formed, 228. 
Jones County formed, 228. 
Jones. George W., 191, 192, 210, 

229', 245. 
Judges of Supreme Court of Iowa 

Territory, 241, 242. 

1/ ANESVILLE, Pottawattamie 
County, built by Mormons, 

269 ; organized battalion in 

Mexican War, 270. 
Kasson, John A., 63. 
Keokuk, Chief, 128, 130, 131, 

143, 148, 150, 151, 155, 156, 

160-163, 166, 169, 189-191, 

205-207. 
Keokuk, City of, 156, 165, 170, 

171. 
Keokuk County formed, 228. 
King, John, established first 

newspaper, 179. 
King, Rufus, 68, 109- 114, 116, 

117, 119, 120. 
Kingsley, Lieutenant Alpha, 

built post at Fort Madison, 84. 

T ACLEDE, 33, 38. 

Land patents from Spain and 

United States, 47 
Land sales in Iowa Territory, 

245. 
Lands taken up by white settlers, 

252. 
Langworthy, Lucius H., first 

sheriff of Dubuque County, 

La Salle claimed valley of Missis- 
sippi for France, 16. 



Index 



287 



Lea, Albert, travelled up and 
down Iowa frontier, 181-1S6; 
described "Black Hawk Pur- 
chase," 196-199, 205. 

Lee County, formed, 215. 

Leffler, Isaac, 209, 224. 

Leffler, Shepherd, 256, 274. 

Le Sueur in Iowa, 29. 

Lewis, Governor of Louisiana 
Territory, 82. 

Lewis and Clark expedition, 61, 
62, 82. 

Linn County formed, 228. 

Lisa, Manuel, in Iowa, 41. 

"Lone Chimney," 92. 

Longfellow, H. W., quoted, 14, 

15- 
Louisa County formed, 215. 

Louisiana admitted into the Union, 

88. 
Louisiana, District of, 70, 71, 73. 
Louisiana Purchase, 50-59. 
Louisiana Purchase, Iowa fourth 

State formed from 275. 
Louisiana Territory, division of, 

on slavery, 68; created from 

District, ^'j ; government under 

discussion, Z*], 
Lowe, Enos, M.D., 267. 
Lowe, Ralph P., 256. 
Lucas, Robert, 235, 236, 239, 

240, 256. 



lyiACOMB, Illinois, nearest 
post-office to Burlington, 
179. 

Madison, University of Wisconsin 
established at, 228. 

Mail stage route established by 
Ansel Briggs, 272. 

Marest, Father Gabriel, 25. 

Marquette, 11-14, 25. 

Marsh, Rev, Cutting regarding 
character of Indians, 165-169. 

Mason, Charles, District Attor- 
ney pro tern, of Van Buren 
County, 216; Chief Justice of 
Iowa Territory, 223, 241, 243, 
273- 



Mason, Stevens T., Governor 
Michigan Territory, 176-179. 

Masonic Library, Cedar Rapids, 
236. 

Massachusetts governor addressed 
Indians, 218-220. 

McCraney, Thomas, 209. 

McGregor, passed by Hennepin, 
15 ; site of, 45 ; visited by Pike, 
80. 

McKnight, Thomas, 210. 

Metho(£st Church, Burlington, 
180. 

Metoxen, John, 164. 

Mexican War, Iowa represented 
in, 270. 

Michigan Territory, extended, 
"^11, 174; government, 176, 
177 ; part organized as State 
of Michigan, 191 ; officers of 
remaining Territory, 191 ; last 
Legislative Council held, 192; 
Wisconsin Territory set off, 
195. 

Mills County named, 270. 

Mills, Frederic D., 262, 270. 

Mineral Point, Michigan Terri- 
tory, delegate nominated at, 
191 ; governor took oath at, 
200. 

Miners Bank of Dubuque, 216. 

Mississippi, Upper, held by Brit- 
ish and Indians, 18 14, 96. 

Mississippi Territory, 68-70. 

Missouri Territory, formed, 88 ; 
population doubled in five years, 
102 ; asked State government, 
103, 104 ; slavery in, debated, 
104-113; Arkansaw Territory 
set off, 113; slavery debate 
resumed, 115-118; slavery per- 
mitted and State admitted, 118, 
123 ; boundaries fixed by Con- 
gress, 121 ; residue of Territory 
left out of State, 124 ; State 
asked removal of Indians, 127 ; 
Indian lands added to State, 
202 ; State claimed land in Iowa 
Territory, 226-228. 

Missouri Compromise, 117, 243. 



288 



Index 



Missouri River, first steamboat 

entered, 102. 
Montrose, Lee County, 45. 
Morgan, settlement of Indians at 

Davenport, 141. 
Morgan, William, 179. 
Mormons, 269. 
Muir, John C, 170. 
Muscatine, Iowa, 186. 
Muscatine County formed, 215. 

jMAMES proposed for western 

Wisconsin Territory, 229. 
" Neutral ground," 144, 154, 252. 
Nicollet, J. N., 63, 184. 
Niles, Michigan, 39. 
''No banks but banks of earth, 

and they well tilled," 273. 
Nowlin, Hardin, 210. 

"QLD ZION," 237. 
^^ Oldest newspaper now pub- 
lished in Iowa, 266. 

Ordinance of I787,''66, 69, 71, 72, 

i75» 243- 
Orleans Territory, 68-70. 
Ottumwa, treaty with Indians 

made near, 250. 

" pAINTED ROCK," 144. 
Palo Alto County named, 

270. 
Parkman, Francis, 221. 
Parvin, Theodore S., 236, 262. 
Perkins, Solomon, 179. 
Perrot, Nicolas, sketch of, 16 ; 

represented France, 18. 
Perrot's Mines, 19. 
Perseverance Town, 167, 168. 
Pike, Lieutenant, explored the 

Mississippi, 77-81. 
Pike's Hill, 80. 
Pinckney, Charles, 115. 
Pinkney, William, 116, 117. 
Plumbe, John, 263. 
Portage des Sioux, peace treaties 

at, 99. 
Prairie du Chien, visited by 

Lieutenant Pike, 79; fort built 

by Governor Clark, 94; assem- 



blage of Indians at, 129-136,' 
Indian massacre at, 140; In- 
dians' council of 1830, 144. 
Preemption rights, 211, 212, 224, 
247. 

QUIGLEY, Patrick, 210. 

p AILROAD to the Pacific, 263. 
Ralph, Case of, 242-244. 

Randolph on slavery in Indiana 
Territory, 72. 

Representatives from Demoine 
County, 209; from Dubuque 
County, 210. 

Reynolds, Eli, 209. 

Ringgold County named, 270. 

Roads, appropriations for, 239. 

Roberts, Benjamin, S., 270. 

Robidoux received first deed to 
land within Iowa, 46, 47. 

Rock Island held by Indians and 
British, 95. 

Rock Island, Council of Winne- 
bagoes at, 153. 

Ross, William R., first post- 
master of Flint Hill (Burling- 
ton), 180 ; Territory officer, 211. 

CT. CHARLES COUNTY, 

Missouri, 73, 74. 
St. Genevieve, 33, 246. 
St. Genevieve Academy incor- 
porated, 81. 
St. Louis, first steamboat reached, 

102. 
St. Louis of Illinois, 71. 
Schoolcraft, Henry R., named 

Iowa County, 178. 
Scott County named, 157, 215, 

228. 
"Scott's Purchase," 157. 
Seventh Legislative Assembly, 

263. 
Sioux City honored Sergeant 

Floyd, 63. 
Skunk River, 183. 
Slavery, in Louisiana, 64, 65 ; 

prohibited in Northwest Ter- 



Index 



289 



ritory, 66 ; slave trade in South, 
67 ; permitted in Mississippi 
Territory, 69; in Indiana Ter- 
ritory, 71-73; in Missouri 
Territory, 104-113; west of 
Mississippi River, 1 14-120; 
prohibited in Iowa, 268. 

Smith, Jeremiah, 209, 224. 

South represented in Iowa Terri- 
torial Assembly, 237. 

Spanish land titles in Iowa, 47. 

Spanish mines, 42. 

Stockbridge Indians sent delega- 
tion to Sacs and Foxes, 164- 
169. 

Street, Joseph M., 203, 

St. Vrain, Felix, removed Black 
Hawk west of Mississippi, 145 ; 
murdered by Black Hawk's 
band, 152; payment to family 
of, 204. 

JALLMADGE, James, on slav- 
ery, 104, 106-109. 

Taylor, John W., on slavery, 105. 

Taylor, Captain Zachary, en- 
gaged Indians at Rock Island, 
95, 96 ; routed miners from 
Dubuque, 142, 143; Taylor 
County, Iowa, named for, 270. 

Teas, George W., 209. 

Teas, Joseph B., 209. 

Tecumseh, 89, 148. 

Tenantry system, should not exist 
in U. S., 212. 

Tesson (Honore), Louis, 45. 

Tesson, Settlement of, 81. 

Tetedes Morts, Dubuque County, 
31- 

Trmible, William A., 121. 



TJNIVERSITY of Wisconsin 
established, 228. 

Upper Louisiana, under France, 
32-34; under Spain, 35-37, 39, 
40; retroceded to France, 47; 
purchased by United States, 48. 

VAN BUREN COUNTY, 

formed, 215. 
Vinton, Samuel F., 258, 259, 260. 

U/ALLACE, William H., 238. 
Washington City burned, 97. 

Washington County, Nebraska, 
62. 

Washington monument, Iowa 
stone, 262. 

Water power in Iowa, 257. 

Waukon spoke for Winnebagoes, 
253. 254. 

Wheeler, Loring, 210. 

White settlements in Iowa, 1801;, 
81. 

Whitney, Asa, explored route for 
railroad, 263-265. 

Wisconsin Territory, Black 
Hawk War in, 152 ; given Ter- 
ritorial government, 195; coun- 
try embraced in, 195 ; First 
Legislative Assembly, 213 ; 
population of, in 1838, 230. 

*' Wisconsin Territorial Gazette 
and Burlington Advertiser, 
The," 266. 

Worth County named, 270, 

VELLOW BANKS (Oquawka), 
Black Hawk crossed into 
Illinois at, 151. 



JUN 19 19C5: 



